What's 'Hijab Day' and why is it causing a 'FREAK OUT' in France?

'If you believe that all women should have the right to decide what to wear and to expect that their decision is respected ... join us.'

Students from the French university Sciences Po Paris held a Hijab Day to raise awareness of the discrimination and verbal abuse Muslim women face every day - and it went exactly how you might expect.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - With the influx of Muslim migrants and refugees, more and more hijabs have been popping up across Europe. The recent terror attacks haven't helped raise opinions of non-terrorist refugees, most of whom are often discriminated against and verbally abused.

Even in the United States, Muslim women wearing hijabs are often considered oppressed. Despite several explanations of Muslim women sharing their decision - yes, it is a decision, not a mandatory act for most Muslim denominations - is for the sake of modesty, the general consensus remains the same: Any woman in a hijab is being oppressed by the men under the guise of religion.

According to The Washington Post, Laurence Rossignol, a French minister for women's rights, recently said women who voluntarily wear hijabs are akin to "negroes who supported slavery."

Students at the French university took the discrimination, assumptions and outright ignorance of the women's decision - and the religion itself - and took the opportunity to organize a Hijab Day at school. The event was meant to support Muslim women's decisions to wear veils.

Organizers posted on Facebook, "If you believe that all women should have the right to decide what to wear and to expect that their decision is respected ... join us."

The response was immediate.

Thousands commented with both support and hate. The idea of Hijab Day even reached French philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Levy, who tweeted, "Hijab Day at Sc. Pr [Sciences Po]. So when is there going to be a sharia day? Or a stoning day? Or a slavery day?"

While several continued to discriminate behind the safety of their computer screens, others supported the idea. Politique'elles, a feminist group on the campus wrote: "Whatever they wear, whether a miniskirt or a veil, (women) are criticized. Feminism must remain universal to defend all women, independent of their religion, origin or social class."

The university allowed the event to take place, but released a statement on Twitter to explain its allowance of the event "should not be interpreted as support."

Meanwhile, organizers left a simple message on the event page reading: "We believe a singly symbolic action such as covering our hair for a day in class, in the street, etc, still allows us to take conscience of the looks and - well, at least an impression of the experience of stigmatization that a lot of veiled women in France go through for too many years."

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