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Anti-Racist Activists Demand Freedom of Dress for School Girls
From Khilafah, which credits the article to AFP.France stood accused of racism on Saturday at a gathering of left-wing and counter-culture groups in London as speakers slammed the country's new law outlawing Islamic headscarves in state schools. Amid the general "rise of racism and Islamophobia" around Europe, the French ban was simply "the most visible way in which it is taking place", one speaker from a British anti-racist group said. "We see this ban as a direct attack on the women's right to choose the way they dress," said Milena Buyum, from the National Assembly Against Racism. Buyum's group was co-sponsoring the debate, one of hundreds taking place in north London under the umbrella of the European Social Forum, which has attracted 19,000 activists to the British capital this weekend. .... "Is it to protect secular value? No, it's about state dictatorship," said Arlene Rodrigues from the British-based Assembly for the Protection of Hijab, who was herself wearing one.
A French activist, Christine Delphy, from the Collectif Ecole Pour Toutes et Tous (Collective School for All), slammed An "exceptional treatment for Islamic insignia". A representative of the Stop the War Coalition, which has organized opposition in Britain to occupation of Iraq, was equally scathing about left-wing groups in France that backed the ban. "In France, the left, to its shame, has joined in the hysteria of the ban of the hijab," Salma Yaqoob said. .... Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-10-17 |
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