Paris, November 27: A Muslim teacher has been dismissed form work in France for refusing to remove her Islamic Hijab or shaking hands with male colleagues due to her religious beliefs.
The teacher had just started apprenticeship at a primary school in Toulouse.
The school’s disciplinary committee which expelled her says it was defending secularism in public schools.
France is home to the largest Muslim population among the 27 European Union member states. Nearly 10 percent of the 62 million people living in France are Muslim.
A ban on Muslim headscarves at state schools was introduced in France in 2004.
Recently, French parliament approved a bill which bans Muslim women from wearing burqa (Islamic veil) in public places.
With 336 votes at the 577-seat National Assembly, the burqa ban received the support of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing parliament majority while the country’s socialists and communists abstained from voting.
The moves have been criticized for violating French human rights legislation.
According to the French government, the recent legislation will affect around 2,000 French Muslim women.
This is while earlier, members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) unanimously voted against any general ban against burqa in Europe, saying Muslim women should be free to choose their clothing.
–Agencies–