In Britain, 15-year-old girl who has wanted to wear strict Muslim attire (the jilbab, a long, flowing gown covering all her body except hands and face) has been denied this in a ruling by the high court. According to the ruling, divisions might be created among students and some might be regarded as "better Muslims" than others.

The Guardian reports:

Muslim girls could wear trousers, skirts or a shalwar kameez, consisting of trousers and a tunic. They relied on the school policy "to resist pressures which could be brought upon them to wear the jilbab". He added: "There would also be the risk of division if the jilbab were to be adopted. There could be two classes of people - those who wore the jilbab and those who wore the shalwar kameez, with those wearing the jilbab regarded as 'better Muslims' than those who wore the shalwar kameez."

It seems like there are two possible situations: ban the headscarf and deny the choice to those who want to wear it or allow the headscarf and allow choice to be denied (through peer pressure) to those who don't want to wear it. The French government went with the former, knowing that those who do want to wear the scarf will still have he choice of Muslims schools. It looks like Britain may be heading down that path as well.

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