French Law Means Sikhs Can't Wear Turbans

[Guest rsingh]

French Law Means Sikhs Can't Wear Turbans

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ce_head_scarves

French Law Means Sikhs Can't Wear Turbans

Mon May 17, 7:08 PM ET 

By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer

PARIS - Sikh school boys must exchange their turbans for hair nets when a new law banning religious apparel in public schools takes effect in September, France's education minister said Monday, shocking representatives of the Sikh community.

 

Education Minister Francois Fillon spoke after education officials adopted — with some misgivings — a set of guidelines to help school officials apply the law, which was enacted in March after a marathon parliament debate.

The law forbids conspicuous religious symbols and attire in the classroom, such as the Jewish skull cap and large Christian crosses, but it is chiefly aimed at the Muslim head scarf.

Under the guidelines, Muslim girls can only wear bandannas in schools that allow them, Fillon told a news conference Monday.

Asked in an interview about the turbans worn by Sikhs, he said an "arrangement" had been made with Sikhs to replace the traditional head gear with hair nets.

"We've come up with an arrangement," Fillon told The Associated Pr

ess. "They accept wearing a hair net. It's less aggressive, less showy."

Representatives of the small Sikh community of 5,000-7,000 said they were unaware of any such arrangement. On the contrary, they said, Sikh representatives had received a letter from a counselor to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, dated May 10, that provided "conditional assurance" that Sikh boys could wear turbans in class.

"We were told that we could wear turbans because we never posed a problem," said Karmvir Singh, a Paris member of United Sikhs.

Sikhs cover their hair with a turban, compulsory in their religion which originated in northern India in the 15th century.

"A hair net has no place and no meaning," said the director of United Sikhs, Hardyal Singh, based in New York. "It's appalling."

A phone call to the prime minister's office was not returned.

The school guidelines go beyond attire to forbid students from refusing certain courses — like physical education or biology — for religious reasons or rejecting professors based on their gender. The guidelines also forbid absences for religious reasons beyond major holidays.

Fillon said it will be up to individual schools to decide whether bandannas — seen by many Muslims as a substitute for head scarves — can be worn.

The new law is aimed at safeguarding the French principle of secularism, considered under threat by Muslims' growing militancy over their identity and the practice by some girls of wearing head scarves to school.

"The most fundamentalist organizations considered that there was a weakness on the part of the French state and that this weakness could be exploited," Fillon told reporters.

Teachers have reported that not only are head scarves increasingly prevalent in some schools, but students are refusing certain courses or contesting the right of a female professor to teach certain topics.

Fillon said he expected legal chall

enges when young girls who defy the law are dismissed from school.

 

"There will surely be organizations that try to test" the law, he told the AP. "But now we have a solid judicial basis."

Make a Stand. we will not take this lying down. our four fathers did not fight for these idiots in world war 2. do ardas, our leaders failed us once again. we will wear our dastars with pride and no one will stop us, we have our Guru. wats this bull <admin-profanity filter activated> they wrote that arangements have been made. thats complete crape. we will never let this drop.

My brothers and sisters in france and the rest of europe who are having similar bands. do not give up hope GURU IS WITH YOU. and so are WE!!

[Guest rsingh]

bloody snail eaters

Sikhs denounce schools turban ban

From Adam Sage in Paris

SIKHS in France reacted with anger yesterday after the Education Ministry said boys should exchange turbans for hairnets under a law banning religious symbols in schools.

Members of the Sikh community accused the Government of reneging on a promise to exempt them from a law principally designed to stop schoolgirls wearing Muslim headscarves. Denouncing the move as an attack on their religious freedom, they said Sikh pupils might have to be withdrawn from state schools.

Many said they were bewildered at the claim by François Fillon, the Education Minister, that hairnets were an acceptable substitute. Kashmir Singh, a member of Gurdwara Singh Sabah, representing France’s 5,000 Sikhs, said: “Hairnets are meaningless. Boys can’t go to school without a turban.

“I’m very surprised because only a week ago we got a letter from one of the Prime Minister’s advisers saying there would be no problem for turbans. The Government seems to be in confusion. I can’t understand what’s going on.”

On a visit to India in February, Dominique de Villepin, then Foreign Minister but now Interior Minister, pledged a “satisfactory solution” for Sikhs who wanted their children to wear turbans at school.

Critics say the Government has become embroiled in the difficulties of implementing legislation that is meant to reaffirm the secular basis of the French state education system. The legi

slation gives schools the power to expel pupils who wear conspicuous religious symbols, such as Muslim headscarves, Jewish skull caps or large Christian crosses.

Introduced amid concerns at the spread of fundamentalism among France’s four million Muslims, the law was extended to other religions to avoid accusations of discrimination against Islam.

But M Fillon has been struggling to put it into practice. So far, he has produced three separate versions of the guidelines for head teachers on headwear permitted in French schools from September. The first allowed scarves as fashion accessories or as part of a traditional costume, opening the way for Sikh pupils to continue wearing turbans.

This was criticised by teaching unions, who said their members would be dragged into interminable debates as they sought to distinguish a fashionable scarf from a religious one.

The latest version, which was approved by France’s Higher Education Council on Monday, gives schools the possibility of banning all headwear. “Religious symbols will be banned everywhere and for everyone whatever form they take,” M Fillon said. He went on to claim he had reached an “arrangement” with Sikhs for pupils to replace their traditional headgear with hairnets.

“We’ve come up with an arrangement,” he said. “They accept wearing a hairnet. It’s less aggressive, less showy.”

Sikh leaders in France, however, say there is no such arrangement. Although they were prepared to accept small turbans, there was no question of hairnets, they insisted.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,...1115347,00.html