Note: Join the author of this explainer here on July 10th, from 16:30 to 18:00 BST, when she will answer your questions on the rights and wrongs of France's "burqa ban". Leave your questions now in the comments section below.

THE FRENCH breathed a collective sigh of relief on July 1st when the European Court of Human Rights upheld the country's 2010 ban on the wearing of full-faced veils in public places. It followed a separate ruling in June by a top French appeals court that a private day-care nursery was within its rights when it sacked an employee who refused to take off her Muslim headscarf at work. In France, such rules generate relatively little controversy. Yet they are often misunderstood in countries where liberal multiculturalism is the established creed. Why are the French so strict about Islamic head coverings?



Had the European Court ruled against France, it would have prompted an outcry there. The country enjoys broad cross-party support for applying secular principles, on the left and the right, and the court accepted that it was part of France’s effort to encourage a society based on “living together”. If anything, the judgment will reinforce France’s resolve to protect its secular tradition. Last month’s ruling against the day-care nursery employee is the first time that a ban on the Muslim headscarf has been extended into the private sector. In its judgment, the court stressed that its ruling should not be generalised, as it related to the nursery’s own company regulations. Yet a precedent has been set, and the chances are that if anything the French will in future enforce rather than loosen bans on Muslim head-coverings.

Dig deeper:
Why there is still much discontent, especially among Muslims, in Marseille (May 2014)
Violence erupts over the controversial burqa ban (July 2013)
Our video on Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to ban the burqa (Sept 2009)