Whatever one thinks about the French ban on students wearing headscarves and other religious symbols, it's difficult to see how a ban on headscarf-wearing mothers could possibly be justified:
A top anti-discrimination body has ruled that French schools were violating the rights of headscarf-wearing Muslim mothers by preventing them from taking part in their children's outings.A group of Muslim women petitioned the French anti-discrimination authority HALDE after they were barred from accompanying school trips or extra-curricular activities.
The school invoked a 2004 French law that bans students from wearing religious insignia, including Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps, Sikh turbans, or large Christian crosses, in state schools.
In a ruling dated May 14 the HALDE stressed that the ban only concerns students, and that "the refusal on principle for mothers wearing the headscarf" to join in school activities was a form of "discrimination on religious grounds."
The HALDE recommended that all schools revise their guidelines on parent participation "in order to respect the principle of non-discrimination on religious grounds."
The whole ban is just bad for business to begin with, and if it had been done years ago (before 9-11) it might not have the same discriminatory stench it has now.
Posted by: vagabondblogger | June 10, 2007 at 02:59 PM