The small Sikh community of France is asking for help from India's Hindu prime minister to have its traditional turbans exempted from a proposed French law to ban religious symbols such as Muslim head scarves from schools

Christian Century, Jan 27, 2004

* The small Sikh community of France is asking for help from India's Hindu prime minister to have its traditional turbans exempted from a proposed French law to ban religious symbols such as Muslim head scarves from schools. Chain Singh, spokesman for about 5,000 Sikhs in Paris, told Reuters he was contacting Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Chief Minister Amerinder Singh of Punjab state--the home of Sikhism--to request that they encourage Paris to exempt turbans.

"We cannot live without our turbans. This is our religion. If we cannot wear them, we may not be able to stay here." Sikh men use their turbans to cover their hair, which is never cut. President Jacques Chirac called in December for a French ban on "conspicuous" religious symbols in public schools.