Journalists kidnapped over headscarf ban

Usually, school dress codes don’t spark death threats.

But the Islamic Army, a militant… Usually, school dress codes don’t spark death threats.

But the Islamic Army, a militant group in Iraq, captured two French journalists and gave Paris two days to repeal its policy of forbidding Muslim girls to wear headscarves in public schools — or else.

Now, according to a Reuters report, President Jacques Chirac has sent his foreign minister, Michel Barnier, to Iraq to negotiate for the hostages’ release, indicating his willingness to listen to, and possibly negotiate with, their captors. All this begs the question: Should France give in to such threats?

France, despite its best efforts, has been thrown into the whirlwind that is the war in Iraq. As part of the international community — one with journalists, who tend to be the most vulnerable foreign nationals in war zones, in Iraq — being dragged into the war was almost inevitable. Chirac faces the choice of appearing weak and facing more kidnappings, or allowing two of his citizens to die.

Fortunately, France has never had a problem with appearing weak internationally. Chirac should repeal the ban, in the hopes of getting his citizens freed. The French media should also see that their embedded reporters travel with security.

This situation is ridiculous from all sides. The headscarf ban is a stupid policy — separating church and state means imposing fewer, not more, restrictions on religious expression.

Justifying the policy by saying that headscarves compromise France’s constitutionally guaranteed secularism and will distract students is a similarly unsound argument. Diversity will always prove a distraction — and one that should be accepted and discussed, not banned.

Plus, the policy isn’t even fair. It bans Jewish people from wearing yarmulkes, Christians from wearing oversized crosses and other overt religious symbols in public schools. Note that Christians can still wear small crosses, whereas other religions are stripped of their symbols, so it only kind of separates church from state.

More than that, while negotiating with kidnappers — and potential murderers — is not a move that should be taken lightly, maintaining a firm non-negotiation policy is no guarantee that the kidnappers won’t kill the journalists and kidnap again.

No one should be dying over headscarves, particularly when the conditions of release are relatively simple. The captors’ tactics are deplorable, but their demands should be catered to, only insofar as it results in the journalists’ release.

France can spin this and say it isn’t negotiating, but rather “reevaluating” its policy. Getting people home safely should be the No. 1 priority, and if France has to abolish a nonsensical policy to do so, then so much the better.