PARIS,
September 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The heated debate
regarding the right of Muslim girls to wear hijab in class surfaced
again Wednesday, September 25, when two sisters of a Jewish father and
an Algerian Muslim mother were banned from a Paris school for refusing
to take off their hijab.
Lila
and Alma Levy, 18 and 16, were expelled from Henri Wallon lycee in the
Paris northern suburb of Aubervilliers, after the school claimed they
were wearing clothes "of an ostentatious character".
Speaking
to IslamOnline.net, Lila maintained that herself and her sister had not
come any pressure from any one to wear hijab.
"Its
our own personal choice (as guaranteed by) the freedom of religion
stipulated by the human rights convention."
For
his part, the father Laurent Levy, a lawyer, reacted with fury to their
exclusion and threatened legal action.
"Three
quarters of the children at their school are from immigrant families.
Perhaps a half are of Muslim origin. Saying to them that just because
they practice the religion of their ancestors they are doing something
ugly is a sure-fire way of causing an explosion," Levy told a press
conference.
"It's
like saying to people who so often feel they are excluded from society
that they actually are," he said.
Levy
said his daughters had been told they could wear hijab only if they
showed the roots of their hair, ear-lobes and neck - but they dismissed
this as religiously unacceptable.
One
of the country's best known civic rights groups - the Movement Against
Racism (MRAP) - has taken up the sisters' case, with president Mouloud
Aounit accusing the government of trying to use them as an example,
reported Agance France-Presse (AFP).
Aounit
said the local education authority had been prepared to reach a deal
under which the girls would have remained at school, but came under
pressure from higher up. And he warned of violence if their case is
allowed to set a precedent.
"This
can only encourage extremism, and I fear that some will use the attempt
to exclude the girls from school as an argument for causes which we do
not support here," he said.
Muslims
Concerned
Leaders
of the Muslim community in France vocalized concerns about the drafting
of a law restricting Muslims’ freedom to practice their religious
rituals and wear hijab.
French
President Jacques Chirac has appointed Tuesday, July 1, presidential
media attaché Bernar Stasse as head of a commission that is assigned
with applying secular principles in France and preparing recommendations
on the possibility of passing a law that bans veils in French schools.
"Muslims
in France believe Stasse Commission has a dangerous task and a major
responsibility," head of Ibn Rushd Society Ammar al-Asfar told IOL.
"We
are following up the commission work and fear it would produce results
harming Islam and Muslims in this country, " he added.
