- An official at the French Ministry of National Education, which is responsible for negotiating with Parliament the proposed law banning students from wearing religious symbols, when asked to comment about French Sikhs asking for exemption from the law.

Same thing happened in Singapore a few years ago when we banned Muslim girls from wearing the Islamic headscarf, or tudong, in schools, for reasons of racial harmony. Sikhs were allowed to continue wearing their turbans, however, because it is regarded as a British colonial legacy and turbans are not politicised the same way that headscarves have been.