The Islamic headscarf has been banned in French schools since 2004, along with Jewish yarmulkes and Christian crosses. France’s education minister, Gabriel Attal, now wants to ban the wearing of an abaya, a Muslim overgarment, in the country’s schools. This has led to a renewed debate about secularism (separation of church and state). Muslims see themselves exposed to greater stigmatization.
“I have decided that abayas can no longer be worn at school,” Education Minister Attal told television channel TF1 on Sunday. He will provide school leaders with “clear rules at the national level” before classes resume nationwide on Sept. 4. “Secularism means the freedom to emancipate oneself through school,” the minister added. After taking office at the end of July, he stated that going to school in an abaya was “a religious gesture” and that he would take action against it.
According to statistics from the French authorities available to the AFP news agency, violations of the laicism demand have increased by 120 percent between the school years 2021/2022 and 2022/2023. In most cases this involved the wearing of religious clothing and symbols.
Warnings “Clothing Police”.
Nevertheless, left-wing politicians warned of a ‘clothing police’ in schools and said the arrangement was unconstitutional. “It’s sad to see going back to school politically polarized by a new, absurd, totally artificial religious war over a woman’s garment,” wrote left-wing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon on short message service X (formerly Twitter). ). A possible ban on the abaja has been debated in France for months, and right-wing politicians have called for it.
It is disputed whether the floor-length robes are actually a sign of religious affiliation, or simply a traditional Middle Eastern garment. “The abaya is not a religious garment, but a form of fashion,” said Abdallah Zekri, vice president of the French Council of Muslims. In the Arab world, the abaya is “fundamentally or not originally a religious garment,” agrees Haoues Seniguer, an Islam expert at the Institute of Political Studies in Lyon. That depends on what meaning the wearer attaches to the abaya.
Government sees abaya as ‘political attack’
According to government spokesman Olivier Véran, abajas are “clearly” religious garments and “a political attack,” he told BFMTV. He compared wearing the overgarments to trying to convert people to Islam. The French constitution guarantees the right to freedom of religion, but requires the state and civil servants to remain neutral.
Source: Krone
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