101 defy scarf ban

Thanks in part to an outpouring of sympathy for two French hostages in Iraq, only 101 girls are still refusing to respect a new law banning Islamic head scarves in schools, the French education minister said today.

Francois Fillon said the crisis over the two French journalists was a prime factor in reducing conflicts over the law since it went into effect when the school year started nearly three weeks ago.

“I feared difficulties, provocations,” Fillon said. “The international situation led to reflexes of responsibility.”

The hostage crisis became “a factor of solidarity around secularism and the values of the republic”, he said.