Hi,
Good questions. But first you must understand a bit about France.
France has a total separation of religion vs public life. This is fundamental to our culture. Religion is private and state will never support anything based on religion. The law of France is greater than any other law even if it contradicts religion based. Equality is a fundamental to our values specially between the sexes. Between religious laws contradicting French law/way of life vs French laws, French laws ALWAYS will prevail. Eg: Right to blasphemy.
To be more specific, there is a special word in French Laïcité. This is what makes France , France. You can look up the word. If you ever want to be a French citizen, this is one of the values which ideally should be tested.
En France, la laïcité est l’un des grands principes de la République : chacun est libre de croire en un dieu ou plusieurs, de ne pas croire, de changer de religion, d’adopter ou d’abandonner une religion. (Translate this in google)
Now to your questions:
1. In some towns there is ban on head covering and now if I am not wrong, a global ban is on the full covering (where only eyes are visible). Why ? Because, this contradicts the principle of equality and Laïcité. You cannot practice religion in public space. Eg: Women are forbidden to swim with men? How dare such things are uttered in France in 2022? In France, we have equality as a fundamental value and anyone who cannot respect this is most welcome to buy a one way ticket lol. If religion says to do something that is against French principles why choose France to stay?
2. Other cultures are most welcome as long as they do not trample of the most fundamental values of the republic. Eg: Indian culture is broadly welcome and Indian food is almost in every corner. Indian dances, songs, movies are widely recognized along with the contributions of the IT manpower that Indians brought
During my university life, I studied with every nationality due to the Erasmus programme and because my uni had global partnerships with all ranked universities. I met , partied, dined, shared the room with every nationality you can think of (as far as Niger? ) and I personally couch surfed and allowed all cultures to enjoy my couch when asked. I went to meetings to practice English with foreigners, partied late night with Egyptian doctor practicing in France etc etc.
In short, if someone integrates and does not trample of the basic values, hell yeah we are welcoming everyone. During the dark times when Paris was hurt (I was sleeping at friends at Paris), the following days I saw incidents of racisms against a genius friend who wore headscarf. Trust me, she was smartest in the UNI. But more or less now, things are much better.
The right wing is clearly on the rise because unfortunately a minority has decided not to integrate. They instill stone age values to young next gen French and this cannot be good as anything going against the core of the republic can divide society. We need to keep France united as a nation and revel in the values which makes France one of the best places to experience
I do not know what to say for number 3. If you are a vampire, then pls by all means wear something to save yourself from the sun
As long as it is serves a purpose lol.
Lastly, on a global level. dont you think racism is always because of extrapolation of data generated by the bad minority few? Very unfortunate ofcourse. Also , economically poor areas have clearly a lot of inequalities. But compared to other countries around the globe, we are far better.
Our social system tries its best to reach everyone. It is humanly impossible but we are best at it. Our social system is next to no one else. And what built this? Our values of keeping all people as equal? Think deep
