CAIRO, June 13 (IslamOnline.net) – A new group, comprising a network of British and international organizations, will be officially launched Monday, June 14, in London, to defend the right of Muslim women in Europe and world-wide to wear hijab.

The Assembly for the Protection of Hijab (Pro-Hijab) will come to light during a press conference at the House of Commons’ Jubilee Room.

"The aim of Pro-Hijab is to campaign peacefully using all available legal means to protect the right of every Muslim woman to exercise her religious duties unimpeded," the group coordinator Abeer Pharaon said in a press release, a copy of which was e-mailed to IslamOnline.net.

She added that the advocacy group will also seek to "increase awareness and tolerance between people of all faiths and no faith."

The body was formed "in response to the recent moves in countries across Europe to restrict religious practices and curb expressions of faith which have a negative impact on Muslim women in particular", read the missive.

"This campaign aims to remove the negative stereotypical image of the hijab which lies at the root of this discrimination, to quell the spread of the 'hijab ban' and work through all peaceful means to repeal laws that ban the hijab wherever they are in place," it added.

The launching press conference will bring together a cohort of leading British politicians and activists, chiefly Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, lawmakers Fiona MacTaggart and George Galloway and  Ahmed Al-Rawi, president of Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE).

The Pro-Hijab campaign is initiated by the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and the Muslim Women Society (MWS).

It is supported by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), Islamic Society of Britain (ISB), the National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR), United Sikhs, Islamic Forum Europe (IFE), Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) and FIOE.

Hijab has taken central stage recently in several European countries, which banned it in state-run schools and public institutions.

France has triggered the controversy by adopting a bill banning hijab in state schools.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the French move is "discriminatory".

The local parliament in the German state of Lower Saxony voted on Wednesday, April 28, in favor of a new law banning Muslim public school teachers from wearing hijab.

It became the second state to approve the ban, after the legislature in the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg voted almost unanimously in April 1 for a similar law.

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations – unlike the symbolic Christian crucifixes or Jewish Kappas.