France: Muslim student barred from school for wearing long skirt
May 01, 2015
Citing a law that bans the wearing of religious garb in the classroom, a school in northeastern France has decided that a 15-year-old Muslim girl is not permitted to wear a long black skirt.
The student, who removes her headscarf before entering the Collège Léo Lagrange in Charleville-Mézières, said that the skirt is “nothing special, it's very simple, there’s nothing conspicuous. There is no religious sign whatsoever.”
Supporting the school’s decision, a local French education inspector told the Associated Press that “it is not the long skirt that is the problem,” but rather the joint decision by the student and other Muslim girls to start wearing such skirts.
“It was a concerted action,” said Patrice Dutot, “with a will to put a [religious] identity on display.”
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Further information:
- French school bans Muslim girl's long skirt as against law (AP)
- French teen's skirt deemed too long for her to attend school (CBC)
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Posted by: barbara.sears1878 -
May. 02, 2015 1:21 PM ET USA
Can we say that the authorities have nothing better to do with their time... I do not think it should even be wrong for them to wear the head scarfs.
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Posted by: james-w-anderson8230 -
May. 01, 2015 6:44 PM ET USA
It is comforting to see that the French bureaucracy is as inept as ours.
