Just over a hundred Muslim girls are still refusing to remove their headscarf when they arrive for classes, French Education Minister Francois Fillon said Sunday in a first assessment of the impact of the ban on religious signs in state schools.
"Last year there were a little over 1,500 girls who wore headscarves throughout the school year. There were 635 cases at the start of classes this year, and after a period of dialogue 534 of them have since agreed to remove it," Fillon said on Europe 1 radio.
"So 101 cases are still being treated," he said.
The "secularity law" which prohibits the headscarf and other "conspicuous" religious insignia from state schools came into effect two weeks ago despite complaints from some Muslim groups that it is a form of discrimination against Islam.
Under the law school authorities must first try to persuade girls to remove the headscarf and only if they persist in refusing can they be expelled. "I hope there will be as few expulsions as possible. Every day the number of cases is going down," Fillon said.
The return to classes was overshadowed by the hostage crisis in Iraq, and the demand by a group holding two journalists that France rescind the headscarf law. Fillon praised the unanimous reaction of French Muslims in condemning the hostage-takers.