Doganay has become a symbol for French Muslim students fighting for their hijabs.

By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

PARIS, September 3, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Many French Muslim girls have enrolled in schools in neighboring European countries or at private schools at home after denied access to state schools over wearing hijab.

"My daughter went abroad to purse her educational ambitions in an EU country that respects religious freedom and is in peace with hijab," the mother of 16-year-old Cennet Doganay told IslamOnline.net.

"It is breaking my heart to see my daughter only on weekends, but we support her decision to not to take off her hijab," added the mother.

Turkish-born Doganay made headlines at the beginning of the 2004/05 academic year when she took off her hijab as she was entering the Louis Pasteur Lycee high school in Strasbourg , eastern France , only to reveal a bald head to protest the controversial anti-hijab law.

The law, adopted by parliament in March 2004, bans hijab and religious insignia in state-run schools. Muslims see hijab as an obligatory dress code and not just a religious symbol like the cross.

In 2004 only six girls have opted for continuing their education abroad, according to the NGO Islamophobia Coalition.

The March 15 and Freedom commission, a self-styled group monitoring anti-hijab incidents, said that at least 20 Muslim students have enrolled in schools in European countries this year.

Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey and Britain are among the countries that were sought by a growing number of hijab-clad students, who are feeling discriminated against in their homeland.

Tutorials

Some of the evicted Muslim students, estimated at 44 by the education ministry, have opted for charge-free tutorials provided by French Muslims.

Maimouna Fouzer, a Muslim revert who established a special educational society for students impacted by the anti-hijab bill, said she assisted in 2004 18 students kicked out from their schools.

"We had many teachers who volunteered to teach those girls and approached the French government to allow them to take final-year exams," she told IOL.

"With success rates exceeding 90 percent, we are ready to repeat the experience this year."

Fouzer predicts more enrollments in the days to come, saying that 11 students have registered with her program before the start of the academic year.

Private Schools

A number of private schools in Paris have opened special sections for hijab-clad students shunned by their state schools.

"Many students who refused to take off hijab have enrolled in our school," Daw Meskine, the principal of Al-Najah school in northern Paris, told IOL.

The beginning of this school year has not yet been marred by any hijab-related evictions because only primary schoolchildren have so far gone back to school.

"I expect to start receiving complaints on a special hotline from disgruntled parents and students when high schools open on Monday, September 5," Faeza Ashour, from the March 15 commission, told IOL.

The law was applied in 2004 to 639 students, mostly hijab-clad girls followed by students wearing large crucifixes and Turbaned Sikhs, according to an ad hoc committee set up by the Ministry of Education.

The International Hijab Solidarity Day was marked Saturday, September 3, in the British capital London.