Muslim girl expelled for wearing scarf

(First Edition)

GRENOBLE (Reuter) - French education authorities yesterday upheld the expulsion from a secular state school of a Muslim teenager who wore an Islamic headscarf during physical education classes.

Sheherazade Ben Lardi, 17, has been on a hunger strike for a week in a camping van outside the headquarters of the regional education authority in Grenoble to protest against her expulsion. The authority rejected her plea to be allowed to finish her final year. Her parents have appealed to an administrative court to reverse the ruling.