Perhaps the most contested ground is public schools, where visible signs of faith are barred under policies seeking to foster a shared sense of national unity. That includes the headscarves some Muslim women want to wear for piety and modesty, even as others fight them as a symbol of oppression.
It has become a privilege to be allowed to practice our religion, said Majda Ould Ibbat, who was considering leaving Marseille, France's second-largest city, until she discovered a private Muslim school, Ibn Khaldoun, where her children could both freely live their faith and flourish academically.
Her 15-year-old son, Chahid, often prays in the school's mosque during recess. For Minane, as for many French Muslim youth, navigating French culture and her spiritual identity is getting harder.
Minane also lives with the collective trauma that has scarred much of France the gripping fear of Islamist attacks, which have targeted schools and are seen by many as evidence that laicite is under siege.
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