(France) Crèche-worker awaits verdict on veil sacking

Crèche-worker awaits verdict on veil sacking

A French crèche assistant who was famously fired for refusing to remove her Islamic head-scarf was awaiting a verdict on Tuesday after appealing against her dismissal. The case has caused a stir amid France's ongoing controversy over the Islamic veil.

Fatima Afif was sacked in 2008 by her employers, the ‘Baby Loup’ crèche in the Yvelines suburb of Paris, after she refused to remove her Islamic headscarf at work.

The privately-run daycare centre has rules requiring its staff to maintain “philosophical, political and denominational neutrality” at work.

However, Michel Henry, a lawyer for Afif has argued that the crèche’s internal rules should be trumped by “the exercise of a fundamental freedom, the freedom of religion,” he was quoted as saying by French television TF1 on Tuesday.

http://www.thelocal.fr/page/view/creche-worker-awaits-verdict-on-veil-sacking#.UUhjkjei2So