French Muslims Urged to Protest against Hijab Ban

Muslims in France have been urged to take part in a gathering in Paris to protest against the ban on Hijab.

The Campaign for Elimination of Islamophobic Laws has issued the call for Muslims to attend the gathering on March 15, the anniversary of the day when the anti-Hijab bill was passed in the French parliament.
On 15 March 2004, the bill, which bans religious symbols including Hijab in public schools and institutions, passed France’s national legislature and was signed into law by the then president Jacques Chirac.
The Campaign for Elimination of Islamophobic Laws in a statement called on French Muslims to express their opposition to the anti-Islamic legislation.
“How long should we remain silent over so much discrimination?” it read, noting that wearing Hijab, which is a religious duty for Muslim women, is banned in schools, universities and government offices.
The statement added that it is time for Muslims to make it clear that Islamophobic laws should be abandoned. 
French authorities claim the laws are needed to protect the secular traditions of the country and for security reasons.
The laws have been condemned by some human rights campaigners, and Amnesty International has argued that it infringes women’s “rights to freedom of expression and religion.”
France is home to the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. Nearly 10 percent of the 62 million people living in France are Muslim.
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