Europe, Headlines, Human Rights

RIGHTS-EU: Headscarf Fails To Find Protection

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, May 11 2005 (IPS) - A group of Muslims and Sikhs from across Europe lobbied the European Parliament Wednesday in an attempt to breathe new life into a debate on the right to wear religious symbols in schools..

The group of Muslims and Sikhs brought together by the Assembly for the Protection of Hijab and the United Sikhs group gathered outside the European Parliament building in the French city Strasbourg Wednesday in a last ditch attempt to urge members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to back a parliamentary bid to overturn a French ban on wearing conspicuous religious symbols in schools.

The London-based Assembly for the Protection of Hijab, or Project Hijab, was formed in response to the ban on the headscarf in France and in parts of Germany.

France passed a law in March last year banning conspicuous religious symbols and attire in state schools. Under this law, school children are banned from wearing the Islamic hijab or headscarf, the Christian cross, Jewish cap, or the Sikh turban.

Dozens of girls have been expelled from secular schools for refusing to remove their head covering.

Project Hijab has issued a statement that since the French ruling other European countries have followed suit "in this worrying display of discrimination, affecting many religious communities." The moves, it says are "contrary to the fundamental precept of freedom and tolerance in European society."

Several states in Germany have passed similar legislation banning the wearing of religious signs and clothing by public servants.

Project Hijab, which was launched in June 2004, aims to reverse bans already brought in and to prevent more "abuses of democracy" being imposed.

The group says it wants to banish the "negative stereotypical image of the hijab which lies at the root of this discrimination" and to offer Muslim women a platform from which they can speak out.

"The aim is to promote a peaceful dialogue with our political representatives. Muslim women only wish to practice their religion as active members of the European Community," Eman Penny, Project Hijab’s European affairs officer told the gathering Wednesday.

In February, five cross-party members of the European Parliament, the European Union’s (EU) only democratically-elected institution, tabled a written declaration on ‘religious rights and freedoms in France and throughout the European Union’, which called for preservation of the right for Muslim women across Europe to wear the hijab.

The declaration tabled by Conservative MEP Philip Bushill-Matthews, Green MEPs Alain Lipietz and Caroline Lucas, Liberal MEP Sarah Ludford and Socialist MEP Claude Moraes, also called for wider respect for religious rights and freedoms.

But in order for the declaration to be debated in Parliament, at least half of the total number of 732 MEPs must sign the written declaration within three months. That deadline that expires May 21. But to date just 53 MEPs have signed it.

Lucas says the ban is an attack on Muslim communities and an affront to civil liberties.

"The ban violates the human rights of free expression and freedom to practice religion, undermines multiculturalism and is likely to create tension and racist attacks," she told IPS Wednesday.

"Women and girls who have freely chosen to wear hijab as an essential part of their Islamic beliefs and lifestyle should not be forced to endure a directive likely to heighten religious and ethnic discrimination," she added.

Lucas urged fellow MEPs concerned about religious freedoms to sign the declaration before the May 21 deadline to ensure it becomes parliamentary policy.

"We call on all MEPs and citizens of Europe to support the written declaration as a show of unity against the discriminatory legislation recently adopted by some European governments, including the French. Religious and cultural freedoms are a foundation of European societies and it is our duty to act now in order to preserve these ideals for the generations to come," she said.

Project Hijab has won the support of a number of prominent groups such as the Muslim Association of Britain, National Assembly Against Racism, the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe and the human rights group Liberty.

Mejindarpal Kaur from the United Sikhs group, which held a series of meetings with MEPs Wednesday, says the lack of signatories is not due to a lack of support for the declaration but due to lack of time.

"It is not difficult to convince MEPs that they need to sign the declaration, but we have not had enough time," she told IPS. "We have only had three months since the declaration was launched and it takes time to mobilise the machinery across Europe."

She is not confident of finding the target number of signatories.

"We will be trying to revive some of the inroads into the debate and perhaps ask MEPs for a fresh declaration," she said.