WUNRN
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32510606
Also Via Human Rights Without Frontiers
France - Outcry over Muslim Schoolgirl's
Long Skirt Ban
Pupils
at a private Muslim school in Toulouse wear veils and long skirts
France is facing a fresh backlash against
its strict secular policy after it emerged a 15-year-old Muslim girl was sent
home from school because she was wearing a long black skirt.
The student, named as Sarah, was twice
blocked from classes because the principal said her skirt broke a ban on
religious signs in schools.
The girl removed her headscarf but said the
skirt was not a religious symbol.
The case has provoked angry reactions
online.
The hashtag #JePorteMaJupeCommeJeVeux,
or "I wear my skirt how I want to" has had more than 45,000 tweets
since Tuesday.
Extreme interpretations
The schoolgirl was sent home in
Charleville-Mezieres in the northern Champagne-Ardenne region twice in April,
according to reports.
Nicolas Cadene, an official advising the
prime minister on secular issues, has said that wearing a long black skirt to
school does not break the rules.
A ban on Muslim headscarves and other
"conspicuous" religious symbols at state schools was introduced in
2004, and widely welcomed in a country where the separation of state and
religion is enshrined in law.
"The 2004 law says that symbols and
clothing worn to show religious affiliation are prohibited," Mr Cadene
told Buzzfeed France
(in French).
"We obviously think of the veil, the
kippah, a large cross, a Sikh turban... A black skirt do not contravene the
law."
But critics say some schools are
increasingly imposing extreme interpretations of the ban.
Eight Muslim students were told to change
by their school in Montpellier when they arrived in long skirts last month,
local media say.
Analysis: Hugh Schofield, BBC News, Paris
The 2004 law was supposed to settle once
and for all the problem of religious signs in schools.
With Islamic head-coverings - the original
issue - it can be said to have succeeded. Today no-one wears them. But instead
the argument has shifted elsewhere: to skirts for girls and beards for boys.
It may sound silly for the academic
establishment to get exercised over an ankle-length skirt, which has been in
and out fashion for many years.
But the point for the school is not so much
the garment as the attitude. If Muslim girls start wearing long skirts in a
conspicuous effort to show their faith, then some will argue that is a breach
of the 2004 law.
The risk is that with the help of social
media this now turns into a nationwide challenge, at a time when tensions over
Islamophobia and secular values are already pretty hot.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Collective Against Islamophobia in
France (CCIF) said they had recorded nearly130 similar incidents in the country
last year.
In 2011 France became the first European
country to ban the full-face Islamic veil - the niqab - in public places.
Most of the population - including most
Muslims - agree with the government when it describes the face-covering veil as
an affront to society's values. Critics - many outside France - say it is a
violation of individual liberties.
The European Court of Human Rights upheld
the ban last July after it was challenged by a 24-year-old French woman, who
argued that it violated her freedom of religion and expression.
France has about five million Muslims - the
largest Muslim minority in Western Europe - but it is thought only about 2,000
women wear full veils.