How can a child adhere to school and the notion of secularism when they see their mother rejected from a school outing, stigmatized, left on the sidelines, just because she has a scarf on her head?
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem
I decided to make a lifetime commitment against social injustices, against inequalities, and that is why I am profoundly from the Left.
It's more necessary than ever before to ensure that discernment and the development of a critical mind guide our take on the world and inform our relationship to the media and information.
My dream of society is a society where women are free and proud of their bodies.
We need everyone to be a feminist. Feminism is the fight for the equality of sexes, not for the domination of one sex over another.
Our universities also have a lot of foreign students. Are we going to ban them access because in their culture there's a certain type of clothing?
Low income persons in need of social housing should be housed in more prosperous areas to avoid placing an extra burden on the poorer areas and to redress the balance in terms of housing, redressing the balance in terms of schooling.
Some Muslim students experience secularism as an act of aggression.
We have to reappropriate the concept of laicite (secularism) so we can explain to our young pupils that whatever their faith, they belong to this idea, and they're not excluded. Secularism is not something against them; it protects them.
By continuing to increase teacher recruitment and training - and ameliorating wages and working conditions - we will be able to shore up the weaknesses of the French education system.
We have several million Muslims in France who are mostly moderates or non-practicing. If they feel that it is the only subject in public debate, they won't feel at home and will be tempted to withdraw to their communities.
It was the students who entered kindergarten in 2011 who are - and I am weighing my words carefully - the sacrificed generation. It is they who have paid a high price for the politics of yesterday - that is to say, the government of Mr. Fillon.
The proliferation of bans fuels stereotypes and discriminates against a community.
I'm like all parents who try to shelter their children.
When I started out, it was rare to see elected representatives with foreign roots. Often, I was relegated to my origins, put in the diversity box: 'You're the new face of diversity.' That annoyed me because I always felt French, and suddenly I was being made to feel I wan't as French as others.
I feel totally French - I don't feel half-French because of my dual nationality. For me, dual nationality just means I don't deny my roots.
I'm aware that beyond my own need to find a personal balance, I should be sending a signal to society as women's minister about the importance of work-life balance.
Compared to some of our neighbours, it's not frowned upon to be a mother and work in France.
If a big number of young pupils felt secularism was an attack on them, it was because the term had been misused and deformed in the public debate for years by the extreme-right and the right as an attack on Islam. The term had often been misused to point out how Muslims were different to others, and that is clearly problematic.
On certain, delicate subjects, bringing in outsiders to talk about values is pertinent because pupils listen to them more attentively.
Equality in education is my number one battle.
School was always a major player in my personal journey. It allowed me to open up to the world, and also social mobility. It allowed me to enrich myself, to read, learn and understand.
It is not just family that must transmit values, but school also.
I was very shy and reserved, so it was a bit contradictory to get into politics.
In Europe, we will work towards having a common stance, while in France, we will strengthen our protection for asylum seekers whose lives are in danger because of their sexual orientation.
We have to be careful not to have a form of militant secularism in our country, which is counter-productive for children we would like to see - adhere - to secularism.
As long as there is no proselytism... we must facilitate the partnership between parents and schools.
The education ministry files suit every time there is a case of identity fraud.
When I look back at where I came from, at the school I attended... my classmates for the most part haven't had successful paths - many have had a difficult, chaotic path.
People can't even imagine that it's possible to succeed anymore.
I have a chart for success at school because it gave me a great deal of pleasure. It opened my mind to the world. I learned to read.
Reading changes your perspective and feeds your imagination.
I would like all French children to have unlimited opportunities opened up for them as French minister of education.
There is no link between the terror attacks of Daesh and the dress of a woman on the beach.
If you're asking me in a general context whether I'm for or against the burkini, the response is simple: I oppose the burkini.
You should be appeasing people as much as possible, not stigmatising them. The ban of the burkini puts into question people's individual freedoms.
Do we have to give Mr Sarkozy a history lesson? Yes, there are Gauls among our ancestors. But there are also Romans, Normans, Celts, Nicois, Corsicans, Arabs, Italians, Spanish. That's France.
We know that if religion is allowed into schools, pupils will sometimes begin to question the teaching they receive.
The fact of leaving one's country, one's family, one's roots, can be painful. My father had already found his place, but for us, for my mother, it was very difficult to get our bearings.
I molded myself against le Front National. Against hate speech, be it racist, sexist, xenophobic, or homophobic. Against the kind of injustice I faced during my own life.
Preventing children from going to school, and preventing teachers from doing their jobs, seems to be not just undemocratic but intolerable.
Inequality of women concerns both India and France, though it might have different manifestations in both the countries.
It's important to understand that one gender is not superior to the other.
Is it written that equality between men and women means one can change sex? Obviously not.
School is at once a place of hope, but it's also a laboratory that exposes our differences.
Teachers alone can't educate young people.
