Why can't we be more forbearing?
I remember reading a news report, a couple of days ago, about young Turkish women being forced to take off their head covering before they could enter their schools/colleges. Those girls were obviously disgruntled by their country's policy which doesn't respect their choice to dress up like a Muslim woman ideally is supposed to do, by covering every part of her body modestly showing just the hands, face and feet. Turkey is a secular state.
Secularism means separation of religion from state or the state being neutral on matters of religion. When a secular government doesn't mind a woman being scantily clad why does it care if a person wants to dress relatively more? And it is not France and Belgium we are talking about but Turkey, a country where Muslims are in a majority.
Hijab isn't a hindrance to learning; it will not block a girl's mind. One of the purposes of knowledge is to open up our minds and to promote tolerance for people who aren't like us, right? And if tolerance isn't there in an educational institution, then the raison d'etre of that educational institution should come under question.
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