Paris ? Waving the French flag or wearing it as a head scarf, thousands of Muslim women marched Saturday through Paris, the center of a worldwide protest against France’s plan to ban head coverings from public schools.

From Baghdad and Beirut to London and Stockholm, protesters condemned the law as an attack on religious freedom. Even in the West Bank city of Nablus and in the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, Srinagar, women came out to support French Muslims.

“Where is France? Where is tolerance?” the crowd chanted during the four-hour march through Paris. “The veil is my choice.”

The protesters want to scrap a bill that will go before French lawmakers next month forbidding “conspicuous” religious signs, from Islamic head scarves to Jewish skull caps and large Christian crosses, in public schools. Easy passage is expected, and the law is to become applicable with the new school year in September.

President Jacques Chirac says the aim is to protect the principle of secularism that anchors life in France. However, it also is seen as a way to hold back the swell of Islamic fundamentalism in France’s Muslim community, the largest in Western Europe at an estimated 5 million.

Police said up to 10,000 people took part in the peaceful march in the French capital, while several thousand others protested in a half-dozen cities around the country.

Critics of the law claim it will stigmatize France’s Muslims. French authorities contend the principle of secularism is meant to make everybody equal.

In Washington, about 100 people protested outside the French Embassy; many were women wearing scarves. The crowded chanted “My scarf, my choice.”

In London, 2,400 people demonstrated near the French Embassy in the upscale Knightsbridge area. Waving placards, they chanted: “If this is democracy, we say ‘No, merci!”‘

An unidentified Muslim woman joins a protest outside the French Embassy in Edinburgh, Scotland, to show solidarity with Muslim women in France who likely will soon be prohibited from wearing head scarves in public schools.

Across the Middle East, protesters denounced the French ban. The largest turnout was in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, where some 2,500 people marched. Smaller rallies drew up to 100 people each in the Jordanian capital of Amman, in Cairo and in Kuwait.

The Party of Muslims of France, a small group known for its radical views, organized the Paris march.

Veiled women chant slogans during a demonstration Saturday in Lille, northern France, to protest the government's plan to ban religious attire in public schools. The law would ban Muslim head scarves, Jewish skull caps and large Christian crosses to keep schools secular and avoid religious strife.