March 10, 2010
Source: The Pew Forum/Religion News Service
[pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=19806]
A Muslim woman has filed a human rights complaint after she was expelled from a Canadian college for refusing to remove her face veil.
The Egyptian-born woman, who is a permanent resident of Canada, was enrolled in a government-sponsored French language class for new immigrants in Montreal, Quebec.
The school, CGEP St. Laurent, expelled her last November after she refused to remove her niqab, a veil that covers the face with only a slit for the eyes.
The school argued that the niqab interfered with the language teaching, since part of the class involves proper elocution and seeing how a person pronounces words in French.