Why should a teenage girl not be able to express her religious beliefs and at the same time pursue an education at school?
It is a tough question, but one to which the French believe they have an answer.
Which is, broadly, because there is such a thing as a French nation, and the teenager is part of it. Nothing defines France, and separates it from its neighbours, quite so clearly as the issue of la laïcité, or secularism.
