France: Headscarf-wearing officer to appear before disciplinary committee

Contrary to the noises Obama was making in France on the headscarf issue - there was a similar case in the US where a convert to Islam at a Philadelphia police station wanted to alter her police uniform to include the headscarf - and she lost her case! The court upheld the state's decision. These pictures show the before and after images of her conversion to Sunni Islam. In another case a Muslim Philly cop was told to trim his beard or lose his job.

A female security agent in Paris who was suspended for wearing an Islamic headscarf on the job is set to appear before a disciplinary committee. The case comes on the heels of the French government's controversial efforts to ban full face veils.

A female security agent in Paris who was suspended for wearing the Islamic headscarf on the job will appear before a disciplinary committee, sources close to the case have said.

The hearing was scheduled for Thursday morning, but a request by the officer for the appearance to be postponed was granted, according to a police source.

A new date for the hearing has not yet been specified.

Nora B. was suspended in November 2009 by Paris police headquarters after being reprimanded several times by her superiors for wearing the Islamic headscarf or veil at work.

France’s laws, which uphold a strict separation of church and state, prohibit civil servants from wearing conspicuous religious symbols or clothing – including a large crucifix, the Jewish kippa, or the Islamic headscarf – at work.

The case of the headscarf-wearing security agent comes on the heels of a national controversy surrounding the French government’s efforts to ban the burqa, or head-to-toe veil. The government has said such clothing conflicts with French secular values.

France 24