Headscarf ban kicks in
2004-09-02 15:40
Paris - France's academic year got off to a quiet start on Thursday as a controversial law banning the Islamic headscarf in state schools went into effect, with the hostage crisis in Iraq taking the heat out of the debate.
"The first day of school is going smoothly, the pupils have gone into their schools, everything is normal," said Hanifa Cherifi, member of an education ministry crisis team set up to monitor implementation of the "secularity law".
Cherifi told AFP there were "no indications that students have refused to remove conspicuous religious insignia", which are prohibited under the law passed by the centre-right government of President Jacques Chirac in March.
Though the law does not single out any specific faith - Jewish skullcaps, large Christian crosses and Sikh turbans are banned along with headscarves - many in France's five-million-strong Muslim community believe the hijab worn by teenage girls is the main target.
As more than 12 million pupils attending 60 000 primary and 11 000 secondary schools returned to classrooms across France, the country waited anxiously for news of two journalists kidnapped by Islamic militants in Iraq.
The extremists holding Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot hostage are demanding that Paris repeal the headscarf ban in state schools, a threat that has sparked widespread outrage in France and fostered a sense of national unity.
Although some feared that girls could deliberately wear headscarves to provoke a confrontation, only a few incidents were reported, with most girls agreeing to remove their head coverings.
Two teenage girls in the Strasbourg suburbs wore wigs to cover their hair, with 18-year-old Fatima explaining: "It's annoying but we have to deal with it."
Even the most outspoken critics of the headscarf law have condemned the hostage-taking as unacceptable blackmail and are urging girls to obey the law.
The country's officially recognised Muslim umbrella group, the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), sent a delegation to Baghdad to help secure the release of the two journalists, who went missing on August 20.