A tragic twist of the scarf

摘要

The coming into force of a ban on head-scarves (and other conspicuous tokens of faith) in French schools was always going to cause tension. But nobody foresaw a full-blown crisis whose human and diplomatic effects have stunned the nation. The kidnapping of two French journalists by the Islamic Army of Iraq, which demanded an end to the headscarf ban, prompted a massive diplomatic effort to secure their release. The newsmen, along with their guide, went missing in late August while travelling from Baghdad to Na-jaf. Both are freelance Middle Eastern hands, who report for various media including the newspaper Le Figaro and state-owned Radio France Internationale. Not until they appeared on the al-Jazeera television channel this weekend was their kidnappers' demand known. The group set, and later extended, a deadline for France to comply. It had previously executed an Italian journalist, Enzo Baldoni.