 |
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"The
abduction has complicated our work, as we could not move as freely
as effectively to help the hijab-clad girls who could face
abductions," said Al-Zahwy
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Additional
Reporting By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent
PARIS,
September 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – France's
controversial law banning hijab in state schools came into force
Thursday, September 2, as a new factor - the hostage crisis in Iraq -
hung ominously over the new school year.
School
administrators in areas with large Muslim populations like the
northern suburbs of Paris, the eastern region of Alsace and the
Belgian border area were on high alert, with mediators prepared to
intervene in any dispute.
More
than 12 million pupils attending 60,000 primary and 11,000 secondary
schools are obliged to heed a "secularity law" passed in
March that prohibits the wearing of hijab and all
"conspicuous" religious insignia.
Many
in France's five-million-strong Muslim community – stressing that
hijab is an obligatory to wear under Shari'ah or Islamic law - feel
they are being victimized by the law.
The
Parliament's approval of the ban in March had drawn massive
demonstrations and acts of solidarity by world Muslims, amid vows to
challenge it.
Casting
Shadow
But
the French government seems optimistic that the first day of school
would go smoothly, especially given the sense of national unity and
disgust in the wake of the kidnapping of two French journalists by
militants in Iraq.
The
militants holding journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot
hostage are demanding that Paris repeal the headscarf ban in schools,
but the blackmail has been fiercely condemned by French Muslim leaders
-- including the most vocal critics of the law.
Muslim
leaders in France, who had largely opposed the hijab ban law, urged
calm for the return to class.
"The
abduction has complicated our work, as we could not move as freely as
effectively to help the hijab-clad girls who could face
abductions," Fatma Al-Zahwy, the chief of French Assembly for
French Muslim Women, told IslamOnline.net.
The
country's officially recognized Muslim umbrella group, the French
Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), has sent a delegation to
Baghdad to help secure the release of the two journalists, who went
missing on August 20.
"The
resumption of classes is a difficult moment to get through. The
hostage-takers are waiting for some kind of provocation. We have to be
responsible," CFCM vice-president Mohamed Bechari told Le Figaro.
"The
secularity law is not a law specifically aimed at the Muslim
community, and France is not at war with the Islamic faith," he
was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.
The
Assembly for the Protection of Hijab – formed after the ban came
into law – admitted the Iraq abductions undermine the peaceful
initiatives it has taken to reverse the Hijab ban in France, and other
countries around the world.
Freedoms
Committee
Zahwy
is a member of the "Freedoms Committee" – set up to help
Muslim girls drift to human rights organizations and unions acting in
support of their cause.
"The
female students could get psychological – and legal - assistance
they could need after the law was enforced," she said.
The
girls expelled after refusing to take off hijab in classes could be
also helped to join private schools, which are not covered by the law
by these groups.
Students
said they were given a handout spelling out the new law and were
instructed to read it and be able to explain it.
Several
Muslim organizations have set up hot lines to advise or council young
girls in a quandary over the law.
Sofia
Rahem said her association, GFaim2Savoir, lingo for "I'm Hungry
for Knowledge," has received "an enormous number" of
calls.
"They
are young girls in distress who don't know what to do with their
future," Rahem, a 23-year-old university student who wears a
hijab, was quoted by CNN as saying.
"They
fear the return to school knowing they won't be accepted with a
hijab."
However,
dramatic scenes of rejection at the school gate were not expected. The
law specifies that no one will be immediately excluded from school.
It
calls for a period of dialogue, though Education Minister Francois
Fillon has stressed that there is no room for negotiations.
"There
is no question today of excluding. It is a question of
convincing," he said.
