By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

PARIS, April 22 (IslamOnline.net) - The French Education Ministry drafted a decree allowing schools girls to wear bandanna, a compromise reached after talks with Muslim community leaders.

Although the draft, introduced by Education Minister Francois Fillon to the cabinet on Wednesday, April 21, did not explicitly use the word, French newspapers and Muslim community leaders said the text refers to bandanna.

The draft will be discussed on Thursday, May 5, by the Supreme Education Council, the body authorized to take such a decision.

The move is seen as a compromise after the Senate approved last month a law banning Muslim girls from wearing hijab in state schools.

Fillon underlined that the new draft does not flout the country's rigid principles of secularism.

The draft maintains that the law does not restrict students’ right to put on traditional wear reflecting a certain culture.

It asserts, however, that the bandanna should not manifest any religious affiliation or come in response to a religious order.

Some Muslim girls use bandannas to cover their hair as an alternative to hijab, feeling it is easier to blend in to the crowd.

Filion's stance is different from that his predecessor Luc Ferry who threatened in January that bandannas and beards could be banned if they are considered a sign of faith.

"There were bandannas in school before the question of the headscarf issue came up," Fillon said in a radio interview on April 12.

"It is only necessary that it not be ostentatious, because that's what the law says".

The hijab ban will come into force at the start of the new academic year in September.

'Compromise'

The new development came in response to a series of negotiations the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) had with Interior and Education Ministries officials, council sources told IslamOnline.net.

Thami Breze, UOIF president, said the council has always been pushing for talks between community leaders and the authorities, especially after the annual Bourget conference of the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF).

The conference sent the message clear to the government that French Muslims are always seeking dialogue and compromises, he said.

Breze met with the newly-appointed Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin on April 15, one day after the conclusion of the three-day Bourget conference.

'More Freedom'

Hailing the move, other Muslim leaders hoped more freedom would be allowed to Muslim women and girls in the country.

"Our ambitions go beyond the bandanna. We hope for more freedom to allow Muslim girls to abide by religious teachings," said Fouad Alawi, the deputy director of UOIF.

He added that union officials will meet soon with the legal representative of the Education Ministry to discuss further steps towards this way.

French President Jacques Chirac said in a televised speech in December that the "Islamic veil - whatever name we give it - the kippa and a cross that is of plainly excessive dimensions" have no place  in the precincts of state schools.

The hijab ban had triggered fury among the six-million French Muslims and abroad.

Demonstrators took to streets in more than 25 countries on Saturday, January 17, for an international day  against the ban.

The country also came under fire from human rights group for the ban, with the Human Rights Watch accusing Paris of being "discriminatory" against Muslims.