“Teachers and friends have been understanding about my decision to wear the veil for the past seven years, and I hope they will continue to be sympathetic … Maybe we will be able to compromise eventually on the acceptability of a small bonnet or a bandana, instead. If not, I risk missing the final and most important year of my education.”

Sania, a 17-year-old student in Strasbourg, worries that the French ban on conspicuous religious attire in public schools — which includes Muslim headscarves, Jewish yarmulkes, and large Christian crosses — will effectively curtail her education. Two French journalists, Christian Chesnot from Radio France International and Georges Malbruno from Le Figaro, are being held hostage in Iraq by a group demanding that the French ban on religious attire be rescinded. French government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope tersely and firmly told Canal Plus television station: “The law will be applied.”

Mimi Hanaoka