President Jacques Chirac has denounced Muslim headscarves on schoolgirls as offensive and expressed concern about Islamic fundamentalism as momentum builds up in France to bar all religious symbols from public schools.
Speaking on a visit to Tunisia on Friday, Chirac said the strictly secular French state could not let pupils wear what he called "ostentatious signs of religious proselytism" and saw "something aggressive" in the wearing of traditional Muslim veils.
Chirac's comments to pupils at the French lycee in Tunis sharpened the shrill headscarf debate in France, which has seen diffuse popular concerns about Islam, women's rights and Muslim immigration develop into a broad movement to ban the veil.
More than 60 prominent French women, including actresses Isabelle Adjani and Emmanuelle Beart and designer Sonia Rykiel, issued a petition on Friday, urging a ban on "this visible symbol of the submission of women".
"We cannot accept ostentatious signs of religious proselytism, whatever they are and whatever the religion," said Chirac, who is due to receive a special report on enforcing secularism next week in preparation for a possible ban.
"In our public schools, a veil has something aggressive about it which presents a problem of principle, even if only a small minority wears it."
Critics say banning a bit of cloth ignores the root cause of problem, the failure to integrate France's five million Muslims -- mostly of North African origin -- into French society.
Muslim women and girls argue that banning them would infringe on their freedom of religion.
Only a handful of schools have expelled girls for insisting on wearing veils, but polls show a majority of voters favour a ban and parliamentarians are ready to pass one into law.
Referring to Islamic fundamentalists, who many anti-veil activists say pressure girls into covering their heads, Chirac also spoke out against "certain schools of Islam that are not compatible with secularism".
He said all religions had known in their history "times when suddenly there is a deviation or drift that leads to excesses that stoke useless fights and totally oppose the essence of religion, which is love and respect for others".
Chirac stressed he had no dispute with the large majority of French Muslims, many of whom are born in France and have full French citizenship, and admitted that Paris had to do more to ensure they are better integrated into French society.
Political momentum against the veil picked up on Thursday when 30 parliamentarians came out in favour of an even more explicit ban than Chirac hinted at, substituting the word "visible" for the more debatable term "ostentatious".
Some conservative politicians are wary of a total ban on religious symbols since it would also bar neck chains with a Christian cross or Jewish kippa skullcaps.