First test for French headscarf ban

France today enforced for the first time a new law that bans Islamic headscarves in schools as students went back to their studies.

The stakes have been raised by a hostage crisis countries away as Islamic radicals in Iraq continue to hold two French journalists hostage, demanding that the law be scrapped or the two will be killed.

Mohammed Bechari, a vice president of the French Council for the Muslim Faith, said the return to class would be difficult and urged calm.

“The hostage-takers are just waiting for a provocation,” Bechari told Le Figaro newspaper before departing for Iraq with a delegation of French Muslim leaders to help in the hostage crisis. “We must be responsible.”

The law has been among the most divisive issues in recent times in France, and it is not yet clear whether Muslim girls who cover their heads will defy it or compromise their beliefs to stay in school.

The law forbids conspicuous religious signs or apparel in public schools, including Jewish skull caps and large Christian crosses. However, it is aimed at Islamic headscarves and meant to counter a rise in Muslim fundamentalism reportedly taking root in schools.

As classes opened, one Muslim girl in the working-class Paris suburb of Aubervilliers said she was leaving her headscarf at home.

“I was always treated badly and I felt uncomfortable, so I decided to take it off,” said Nadia Aradi, 16, before heading through the school gates.

Several Muslim organisations have set up hot lines to advise or council young girls in a quandary over the law.

Sofia Rahem said her association, GFaim2Savoir, “I’m Hungry for Knowledge,” had received “an enormous number” of calls.

“They are young girls in distress who don’t know what to do with their future,” said Rahem, a 23-year-old university student who wears a headscarf. “They fear the return to school knowing they won’t be accepted with a scarf.”

The law, passed in March, has raised arguments over religious freedom, free expression and France’s much cherished principle, secularism, seen by authorities as under threat by increasingly militant Muslims.

France’s Muslim population is an estimated five million, the largest in Western Europe.

Today, there were no immediate reports of dramatic scenes of rejection at school gates. The law specifies that no one will be immediately excluded from school. It calls for a period of dialogue, though Francois Fillon, the education minister, has stressed that there is no room for negotiations.

“There is no question today of excluding. It is a question of convincing,” he said.

Experts predict a rash of court cases brought by Muslims who test the law by wearing “discreet” head coverings like bandannas. The law allows for discreet religious signs.