PARIS, March 18, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) � The French
law banning hijab in schools has proved discriminatory against the Muslim
minority and a violation of France's secularism, said the Coalition
against Islamophobia in its report marking the first anniversary of the
controversial law.
"The French secularism, which is supposed to guarantee
the religious freedom and respect for pluralism, has been violated by the
hijab-banning law," said the coalition's report, a copy of which was
obtained by IslamOnline.net on Thursday, March 17.
The 27-page report stressed that the French law also
reflected the failure of the French education system in conveying its
message on well-educating citizens, no matter what their beliefs
are.
Hijab has taken central stage recently in several
European countries, especially after France banned it in state-run schools
and public institutions as of March 15.
"Discriminatory"
The French law is a discriminatory move against the
Muslim minority in the European country, the report stressed.
"What proves the French law�s discriminatory nature is
that all French female students expelled from schools since it was put
into force were Muslims," the report said."
Some 42 Muslim female students were ousted from
schools. Six of them had no other option but to join schools in Belgium
and Turkey, while 17 others attended classes in private
institutes."
The highest number of Muslim students expelled from
schools was in the Alsace province, north-eastern France, where some 15
Muslim females were forced to leave their schools, the report
said.
Other four Muslim students were expelled from schools
in Paris and its suburbs, it added.
The French authorities did not even respect one of the
law�s articles on talking to the hijab-clad students before deciding on
their expulsion from the school, the report said.
"Many of the Muslim students were barred from
contacting their schoolmates and teachers and unable to talk to their
teachers before they are expelled."
"And several hijab-clad students were put in private
classes away from their colleagues."
The coalition stressed that the Muslim females were
also banned from wearing Bandana (a French alternative to hijab) in
schools.
The French Education Ministry proposed a draft law
allowing French students to wear the Bandana in schools on the condition
that the attire would not make a religious statement.
The report stressed that some French schools tried to
pressure parents of the hijab-clad students into asking their daughters to
take off hijab.
"Worse still, the school headmasters pressured
brothers of the hijab-clad girls to convince their sisters to abandon
hijab."
Backlash
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Doganay shaved her head in protest
at the French ban on hijab in state schools
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The hijab-banning law would take a psychological toll
on Muslim females and their position in society, and could trigger more
backlash and Islamophobic acts against the Muslim minority, the report
warned.
The coalition raised alarm bells the hijab ban is
sweeping across other walks of life in the rigidly-secular France after
the law was put into force.
"Many French civil servants used the law to ban the
hijab-clad females from entering public places such as universities,
hospitals, banks and entertainment places."
Former French Interior and incumbent Finance Minister
Nicolas Sarkozy has long opposed the law, warning it would provoke a
backlash among Muslims, who would view it as an "insult and
punishment".
The Muslim minority members also reacted in deep
outrage, taking to streets and urging Muslims across the world for
pressures on Paris to abolish the law.
Protesting the French law, a French Muslim schoolgirl
has shaved her head in protest at a ban on hijab in state
schools.
Cennet Doganay, 15, took off her hijab as she was
entering the Louis Pasteur Lycee high school in Strasbourg, eastern
France, only to reveal a bald head.
