Thousands of marchers, many of them women wearing head scarves, protested on Saturday in France against a law to ban Islamic head coverings and other religious apparel in public schools.
Police estimated that 2,600 people marched in the southern city of Lyon. Organizers put the figure at 8,000.
PHOTO: AFP
In Paris, protesters marched through the east of the city. Police said the crowd numbered 1,300. Reporters estimated 2,000 to 3,000.
France's government aims to have the law -- needed, it says, to keep religion out of secular schools -- in place for the 2004 to 2005 academic year that starts in September.
France took a decisive step last Tuesday toward legislating, with parliament's lower house over-whelmingly approving the ban on religious apparel by a massive 494 to 36 margin, despite protests and criticism from around the world that the measure infringes on religious freedom.
Saturday's protests were the latest in a series in France against the measure, which would also ban Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses from public schools.
Protesters in Paris carried banners marked "The veil, my voice," "Secularism: Shame," and "School is my right. The veil is my choice. France is my shelter."
They marched from the Place de la Republique to the Place de la Nation. The demonstrators included many women wearing head scarves, as well as women without and many men.
Protesters said the law was discriminatory and would prevent Muslim girls from attending school.
"We can't conceive that an exclusion law has been voted, a law that will prevent young adolescent women from their right to get education," said Khadidja Marfouk, at the Paris demonstration.
In Lyon, some marchers wore head scarves in the blue, white and red colors of France's flag.
Other protests also were planned in at least nine other towns and cities.
French leaders hope the law will quell debate over Islamic head scarves that has divided France since 1989, when two young girls were expelled from their school in Creil, outside Paris, for wearing the head coverings. Scores more have been expelled since then.
The bill stipulates that "in schools, junior high schools and high schools, signs and dress that conspicuously show the religious affiliation of students are forbidden." It would not apply to students in private schools or to French schools in other countries.
Sanctions for refusing to remove offending apparel would range from a warning to temporary suspension to expulsion.
The measure goes early next month to the senate, where there is little opposition.
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