France To Ban Wearing Islamic Abayas In Schools: Minister
Date
8/27/2023 7:42:40 PM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) AFP
Paris: French authorities are to ban the wearing in school of abaya dresses worn by some Muslim women, the education minister said on Sunday, arguing the garment violated France's strict secular laws in education.
"It will no longer be possible to wear an abaya at school," Education Minister Gabriel Attal told TF1 television, saying he would give "clear rules at the national level" to school heads ahead of the return to classes nationwide from September 4.
The move comes after months of debate over the wearing of abayas in French schools, where women have long been banned from wearing the Islamic headscarf.
The right and far-right had pushed for the ban, which the left argued would encroach on civil liberties.
"Secularism means the freedom to emancipate oneself through school," Attal said, describing the abaya as "a religigesture, aimed at testing the resistance of the republic toward the secular sanctuary that school must constitute.
But Clementine Autain of the left-wing opposition France Unbowed party denounced what she described as the "policing of clothing".
Attal's announcement was "unconstitutional" and against the founding principles of France's secular values, she argued -- and symptomatic of the government's "obsessive rejection of Muslims".
The CFCM, a national body encompassing many Muslim associations, has said items of clothing alone are not "a religisign".
The announcement is the first major move by Attal, 34, since he was promoted this summer to handle the hugely contentieducation portfolio.
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