Abaya dresses worn by certain Muslim women will no longer be permitted in French schools, the education minister announced on Sunday, citing the country’s stringent secular education rules.
“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 decision was made following months of discussion about the abaya’s wear in French schools, where women have long been prohibited from donning the Islamic headscarf.
The ban had been promoted by the right and far-right, who claimed it would violate civil liberties.
According to reports, abayas are being worn in schools more frequently, and there are conflicts between instructors and parents about it. The decision was made following months of discussion about the abaya’s wear in French schools, where women have long been prohibited from donning the Islamic headscarf.
According to reports, abayas are being worn in schools more frequently, and there are conflicts between instructors and parents about it.
“Secularism means the freedom to emancipate oneself through school,” Attal said, describing the abaya as “a religious gesture, aimed at testing the resistance of the republic toward the secular sanctuary that school must constitute.
“You enter a classroom, you must not be able to identify the religion of the students by looking at them,” he said.
A law of March 2004 banned “the wearing of signs or outfits by which students ostensibly show a religious affiliation” in schools.
This includes large crosses, Jewish kippas and Islamic headscarves.
Abayas, a long, baggy garment used to adhere to Islamic views on modest dress, occupied a gray area and, unlike headscarves, had not yet been subject to an outright prohibition.
But in November of last year, the education ministry had already released a circular on the subject.
The abaya was among a list of garments whose use would be prohibited if it was “worn in a manner to openly display a religious affiliation.” Long skirts and bandanas were lumped together in the circular.
