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.

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."

Doganay shaved her head in protest at the French ban on hijab in state schools

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.