France has a striking legal attitude against religion in the public space.  Taking pride in its Enlightenment heritage, French law requires that certain public spaces be free of “ostentatious religious symbols.”  The law effectively bars some religious sects from public office, as no one can wear such symbols in government buildings.  It also imposes a serious limitation on such sects in ordinary life, as their children may not wear such symbols to school.  In this way, the secular state in France forces all religions to acknowledge the supremacy of the state in daily life.  No religion is singled out, and the original policy dates to a 1905 law aimed at Roman Catholics, but today Muslims in France are the ones who are most obviously affected by the bans.  The full-face veils of the strictest sects of Islam are forbidden anywhere in France outside the home.

So when the sanctions against Iran lifted recently, Air France found itself with a problem.  The airline intends to begin regular flights between Paris and Tehran.  However, its flight attendants union is made up largely of French women who have lived their whole lives with legal protection against being forced to veil themselves.  They are arguing that French law forbids the airline from insisting that they don the hijab.  They are also arguing that they cannot be forced by their employer to fly into a country that would require it of them by law.

Unions are very powerful in France, so Air France appears to be caving in rather than facing a court challenge they would probably lose.  They seem prepared to offer the concession that the union asked by making the Tehran flights optional duty for volunteers only.  However, Air France does have a counterargument:  they already require female crew flying into Saudi Arabia to wear abayas.  German carrier Lufthansa also requires female staff to wear the fuller abaya when flying into Islamic countries including Iran.  Thus, it is industry standard practice to force European women to submit to sharia law when flying into these countries.

Recently, an all-female aircrew from Royal Brunei Airlines landed a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  Their flight was the first into the Kingdom that was crewed entirely by women.  It made international headlines because of the fact that, on landing, the women who had flown a major long-range aircraft were suddenly forbidden from driving themselves to their hotel.