What is even more worrying is that north African Islamic practice has always been moderate and very few parents of these girls seem to want to see their daughters wrapped up like mummies . Many mothers from Maghreb backgrounds watch mystified as their daughters don garments that they thought were a thing of their past, forgotten forever when they settled on French soil. They worry too when they see their sons caught up in fundamentalist Mosque meetings, from whence they arrive home to lecture their sisters on what is fitting behaviour. And when their sisters refuse to toe the line they admonish them, beat them and, on some horrendous occasions, burn them alive. One of my pupils in the Lycée, where I have taught for fifteen years, is currently undergoing physical abuse from her brother for exactly this reason.

It is hardly surprising that the organization, Ni Pute Ni Soumise, founded by French women of North African descent, has always backed the secular rules in French schools, notably about headscarves. They argue that if the schools and the State cave in on this point, many North African girls will be left completely at the mercy of their fanatical brothers and their friends. While it is true that some women choose to cover themselves, many do so under pressure and that pressure would be all the greater if the French state, in the name of tolerance, allowed it to be exerted.