MARSEILLE: Two Muslim mothers wearing headscarves were accosted and prevented from entering a nursery school on the French island of Corsica on Monday by two other parents, officials said.
The incident happened as parents were dropping off their children at the start of the school day in Bonifacio, on the island’s southern tip.
The two women, wearing Muslim headscarves, “were stopped by two men, two brothers, who thought it wasn’t right that their children are not allowed to wear emblems of their religion at school and yet these women could enter with their veils,” said local prosecutor Eric Bouillard, confirming a report in the Corse-Matin newspaper.
Bonifacio mayor Jean Charles Orsucci said his education official “had intervened to allow normal entry to the school”.
Police and a schools inspector were also sent to the scene “and the situation calmed down. There was no violence, no threats, and therefore no laws broken,” said Bouillard.