“Other students come dressed up as hippies or goths and nobody says anything,” the girl, Khadija, told the French daily Le Parisien, “but I’m not even allowed to wear a gypsy skirt.”

“If I had come to school wearing a veil I would have understood their reaction,” says Khadija, who is a student at the Edmond-Rostand secondary school at Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône near Paris. 

On Monday, Khadija was sent home from school for wearing a long skirt that according to the school conveyed religious values.

“It was a beautiful day, I wore a long skirt,” says Khadija, “the headmistress told me I was being provocative and sent me home.”

An official belonging to the local academic authority however denies Khadija was expelled from the school and says the skirt had only been “commented on”.

“She takes her veil off before entering the school, but it’s our role to make comments to pupils who wear provocative clothes. We do the same with a girl who comes to school with a bare belly,” said the unnamed official in an interview with Le Parisien. 

In 2004, a ban on religious symbols in schools came into effect, meaning Muslims girls were no longer allowed to wear a veil in class.

Khadija however believes the school is not allowed to comment on her clothes and insists she will not shorten her skirts.