September 3, 2003	Wednesday	Rajab 5, 1424

PARIS, Sept 2: Lycee Averroes, the Lille-based educational establishment in the news for the past several months for having become France’s first Muslim high school, opened its doors for the first time on Tuesday but only to a class of 12 students rather than the 30 expected.

Although the school was prompted as being open to all religions, all of the Lycee’s first students were Muslim origin. The six female students in attendance had all chosen to wear the headscarf.

The school’s first director, Sylvia Taleb, says that she’s not concerned about the situation of Lycee Averroes’ first class being all-Muslim, but admits that she will “be extremely vigilant to see to it that we do not withdraw into ourselves, and shut ourselves off from the world.”