Oppression can take many forms and appearances can be misleading. I don't feel comfortable with seeing women fully covered nor do I like seeing little girls with their hair covered. However I think I feel that way because its not my culture but if I lived somewhere where it was more commonplace I'd probably take it for granted. I don't particularly feel comfortable with seeing women plastered with far too much make up because they tried to meet the norm so prevalent in advertising, or who are so clearly in their third round of botox.
Is that not oppressive?

I was in a play park with my children last week when a Muslim family of girls wearing the hijab arrived with their father who had clearly just collected them from school. These girls played on the swings and climbing frame with my daughters and engaged in rough and tumble play with each other. I saw nothing about them or their behaviour, or the way their father played and interacted with them, oppressive. He was encouraging them to take risks on the climbing frame and challenging them about their homework.
The degree to which such dress 'oppresses' women is very variable. In some Islamic communities it does so more visibly but in others, and amongst more assertive , professional women, there is more to it. I lived for some time as a student with some Syrian women , some who wore the veil and followed traditional customs, and some who did not. These people were fairly well off as you might expect being foreign students but those who wore the veil chose to do so. I learnt a lot about Islam from them and realised that many people and countries interpreted it in different ways.
I therefore think twice before making judgements but I do despise countries like France who make wearing the veil a criminal offence as much as countries who force women to do so as well as beating and publicly executing women for adultery and other alleged crimes. Both sides of the same coin.

I agree that education should be as secular as possible which I think is what happens in France but once the girls/women leave school for the day then they should have the right to wear the veil.

France is not known for its fantastic race relations with its Muslim citizens and to take this step is very questionable as I suspect the main motive is control and as someone said, attracting the populist vote, not the concern for the welfare of its Muslim women.