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EURO-MP JOINS EMBASSY PICKET IN PROTEST AT FRENCH
HEADSCARF BAN
Event: Picket at French
Embassy for International Hijab Solidarity Day Place: Outside French
Embassy, 58 Knightsbridge, London SW1V 7JT Time: Saturday, 4th
September, 2004. From 12 noon.
BRITISH Euro-MPs are spearheading attempts to persuade the European
Parliament to condemn the French ban on Muslim headscarves as a
violation of human rights that panders to the 'racist right'.
Denouncing France's ban on girls wearing traditional 'Hijab'
headscarves as an affront to civil liberties and attack on Muslim
communities, MEP Caroline Lucas will tell a London rally outside the
French Embassy on Saturday that momentum is gathering for a EU-wide
campaign to prevent the spread of the law.
Dr Lucas will make her comments at a picket of the embassy during a
worldwide day of action against the ban, which comes into force when
French schools re-open after the summer holiday this week. The picket
has been organised by the Association for the Protection of Hijab
(ProHijab).
Dr Lucas, South-East England's Green Party MEP, will say, "I am
pleased to join this picket to send a strong message to President
Chirac that he must abandon his proposed ban on girls wearing Hijab in
schools.
"The ban violates the human rights of Muslims to free expression and
freedom to practice their religion, undermines multiculturalism and is
likely to create tension and racist attacks.
"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."
Dr Lucas, who has recently returned from a EU fact-finding mission to
the Middle East, added: "Earlier this year I visited Israel and the
Palestinian occupied territories and saw for myself the dangers of
religious intolerance, bigotry and hatred. Just this week we have seen
the terrible human price of intolerance with 16 killed by suicide
bombers in Beersheba and uncertainty over the fate of two French
journalists kidnapped in Iraq.
"The civil liberties affronted by a Hijab ban are central to the
ideals of the French republic - and the French government must defend
them, standing up for Muslims and for a multicultural Europe free of
the violence and mistrust which characterises the conflict in the
Middle East."
Dr Lucas and fellow Green Party MEP Jean Lambert are to host a seminar
for a cross-party group of Euro-MPs opposed to the ban in Brussels on
September 22nd to discuss what action can be taken at European level
to reverse the ban.
ENDS
For more information please contact:
Ben Duncan on 01273 671946, 07973 823358
or
press@greenmeps.org.uk
www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk
Ben Duncan
Green MEPs' Press Officer
press@greenmeps.org.uk
01273 671946 (office)
07973 823358 (mob)
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