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Transcript
00:00Wearing religious garb when voting in an election is perfectly all right under French law.
00:10So is wearing religious symbols when traveling in public transportation and studying at university.
00:21But civil servants have to remain discreet about their faith. People who want the state to fund
00:29their place of worship, they have to know that it is officially banned.
00:35French secularism results from history and wars of religion that tore the country apart.
00:41After the separation of church and state, French authorities created secular schools at the
00:46end of the 19th century. In 1902, the French government closed hundreds of unofficial schools
00:53managed by the Catholic Church. A decision that led to a crisis in France's once close
01:01relationship with the Vatican.
01:07The landmark bill outlining secularism passed in December of 1905.
01:16It enshrines the right to practice all faiths while saying the state is neutral on matters
01:21of religion. After World War I, the French government supported a bill that allowed the state to
01:28build a great mosque in Paris, an exception to secularism meant to thank North African Muslims
01:34for joining France's war efforts.
01:39Decades later, religious symbols stirred debate after three adolescents refused to take off their
01:45veils in their public schools. Fifteen years later, Parliament passed an additional law specifying
01:52that outward religious signs are banned in public schools and government buildings.
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