Quotes from Najat Vallaud-Belkacem

The fact of leaving one's country, one's family, one's roots, can be painful. My father had already found his place, but for us, for my mother, it was very difficult to get our bearings.

As long as there is no proselytism... we must facilitate the partnership between parents and schools.

I'm like all parents who try to shelter their children.

When I look back at where I came from, at the school I attended... my classmates for the most part haven't had successful paths - many have had a difficult, chaotic path.

The education ministry files suit every time there is a case of identity fraud.

Reading changes your perspective and feeds your imagination.

It's important to understand that one gender is not superior to the other.

Preventing children from going to school, and preventing teachers from doing their jobs, seems to be not just undemocratic but intolerable.

I decided to make a lifetime commitment against social injustices, against inequalities, and that is why I am profoundly from the Left.

We need everyone to be a feminist. Feminism is the fight for the equality of sexes, not for the domination of one sex over another.

In Europe, we will work towards having a common stance, while in France, we will strengthen our protection for asylum seekers whose lives are in danger because of their sexual orientation.

If a big number of young pupils felt secularism was an attack on them, it was because the term had been misused and deformed in the public debate for years by the extreme-right and the right as an attack on Islam. The term had often been misused to point out how Muslims were different to others, and that is clearly problematic.

We have to reappropriate the concept of laicite (secularism) so we can explain to our young pupils that whatever their faith, they belong to this idea, and they're not excluded. Secularism is not something against them; it protects them.

You should be appeasing people as much as possible, not stigmatising them. The ban of the burkini puts into question people's individual freedoms.

We have several million Muslims in France who are mostly moderates or non-practicing. If they feel that it is the only subject in public debate, they won't feel at home and will be tempted to withdraw to their communities.

My dream of society is a society where women are free and proud of their bodies.

We know that if religion is allowed into schools, pupils will sometimes begin to question the teaching they receive.

Low income persons in need of social housing should be housed in more prosperous areas to avoid placing an extra burden on the poorer areas and to redress the balance in terms of housing, redressing the balance in terms of schooling.

When I started out, it was rare to see elected representatives with foreign roots. Often, I was relegated to my origins, put in the diversity box: 'You're the new face of diversity.' That annoyed me because I always felt French, and suddenly I was being made to feel I wan't as French as others.

I was very shy and reserved, so it was a bit contradictory to get into politics.

How can a child adhere to school and the notion of secularism when they see their mother rejected from a school outing, stigmatized, left on the sidelines, just because she has a scarf on her head?

I'm aware that beyond my own need to find a personal balance, I should be sending a signal to society as women's minister about the importance of work-life balance.

Inequality of women concerns both India and France, though it might have different manifestations in both the countries.

It is not just family that must transmit values, but school also.