An appeals court in the eastern French town of Nancy has ordered the government to pay $2,000 to the father of a Muslim girl who was expelled from her high school in 1994 for refusing to remove her headscarf in class.
Proselytizing in French public schools, which are secular, is illegal, but there are no specific laws forbidding religious symbols or dress.
In 1994, the French Education Ministry issued a directive ordering the removal from public schools of “ostentatious symbols of religion,” but allowed principals flexibility in applying the directive.
The French Jewish community has followed this issue because of its possible impact on the ability of observant Jewish students to wear skullcaps in public schools.
More than 60 Muslim girls have been suspended from French public schools in recent years for wearing headscarves.
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