NANCY, France, June 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A French court has rejected a Turkish Muslim woman's demand for a resident's permit on the grounds that she wore a headscarf for her identity photograph, judicial sources said Wednesday.
In its ruling, the appeals court in the eastern city of Nancy, dismissed government legal advice that the woman should be allowed to wear a headscarf in her ID photo as long as it did not disguise her identity, reported the French news wire AFP.
The woman had applied to renew her French resident's permit in 1996 but the local administration in Montbeliard rejected the demand on the grounds that the ID photos she provided showed her wearing a scarf covering her head and neck and did therefore did not meet official regulations.
Muslims in France have been struggling for more rights and acknowledgement of Islam. French Muslims make up the single largest Muslim community in Europe. Their number is now estimated at around 6 million, or up to 10 percent of the total French population.
Muslims are second in size only to the Roman Catholic community.
The Muslim labor force and Muslim businessmen constitute significant economic power in the country, about 60% of them hold French nationality. Statistics show that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in France; some 50,000 Frenchmen and women are said to be converting annually.
In spite of their size, Muslims complain that the French refuse to accept the Muslim presence, considering Islam an alien force which "should be eliminated."
French Muslim groups say that their communities are being overwhelmed by the "secularism" sweeping over all spheres of life in France, where it is increasingly difficult to live or bring up children as Muslims.
Muslims in France, having been forced to accept that their daughters cannot wear hijab to school, were confronted last year with a new policy, which makes the abortion-pill freely available to teenage school-girls, "making illicit sexual activity routine and subverting parental authority."
