In 2008, an employee at the Baby Loup day-care centre, Fatima Afif, was sacked after refusing to remove her veil at work in accordance with company policy, which had changed while she was on maternity leave. She sued and the case has since ping-ponged throughout the French courts. Meanwhile, politicians - and members of the public - feel that the row is undermining the long-held French principle of secularism, which strictly separates religion from the state.
