France -- As you may recall, two French Muslim girls (aged 11 and 12) were expelled from school in 1999 following their refusal to take off their hijab during sport classes. At the time, the school said that hijab was deemed not compatible with physical education classes.
Recently, the top European human rights court in Strasbourg ruled in favor of the school, saying the ban was not a violation of the European Human Rights.
The European Court of Human Rights said: "The court observed that the purpose of the restriction on the applicants' right to manifest their religious convictions was to adhere to the requirements of secularism in state schools," according to Reuters and islamonline.net.
There have been several reported cases involving the use of hihab within the martial arts also.
For instance, on November 14, payvand.com reported how a female Iranian karateka, Helen Sepahi, was dismissed from the World Karate championships in Japan when she refused to take off her hijab prior to a fight.
And in November 2007, A judo official in Manitoba, Canada refused to allow an 11-year-old girl to compete in a tournament wearing a hijab. We covered that story in this post.
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