On December 11, 2003, the Stasi Commission, including twenty French academics and social activists, submitted a report on secularism to President Jacques Chirac. The French executive and legislators embraced the commission's recommendation of a law to prohibit students' religious symbols in public schools. Although the primary target of the law was Muslim headscarves, it also included “large” Christian crosses, Jewish kippa, and Sikh turbans. A week after the Stasi Report, the U.S. Department of State released its “2003 Report on International Religious Freedom.” At the accompanying press conference, Ambassador John Hanford answered the following questions:

Question: What was your reaction to President Chirac's headscarf ban…?

Ambassador: [A] fundamental principle of religious freedom that we work for in many countries of the world, including on this very issue of headscarves, is that all persons should be able to practice their religion and their beliefs peacefully without government interference.… President Chirac is concerned to maintain France's principle of secularism and he wants that, as I think he said, not to be negotiable. Well, of course, our hope is religious freedom will be a non-negotiable as well. One Muslim leader said this is a secularism that excludes too much.… [A] number of countries … restrict headscarves … where people are wearing these with no provocation, simply as a manifestation of their own heartfelt beliefs, that we don't see where this causes division among peoples. […]