The traditional dress known as the abaya will no longer be permitted in French schools, according to the country’s strict secular education laws, according to the country’s minister of education.
Education Minister Gabriel Attal stated to TF1 television that “clear rules at the national level” would be provided to school administrators prior to the start of classes across the country on 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 left argued that the ban would violate civil liberties while the right and far-right had pushed for it.
According to reports, abayas are being worn in schools more frequently, and there are conflicts between teachers and parents about it.
Attal defined secularism as the freedom to emancipate oneself through education and referred to the abaya as “a religious gesture, aimed at testing the republic’s resistance toward the secular sanctuary that school must constitute.”.
When you enter a classroom, you shouldn’t be able to tell the students’ religion just by looking at them, he said.
A law passed in March 2004 outlawed “the wearing of signs or outfits by students ostensibly showing a religious affiliation” in schools.
Large crosses, Jewish kippas, and Islamic headdresses are examples of this. Abayas, a long, baggy garment worn to adhere to Islamic beliefs on modest dress, occupied a gray area and had not yet been outright banned, in contrast to headscarves.
But in November of last year, the education ministry had already released a circular on the subject.
It listed a number of clothing items whose use might be prohibited if they were “worn in a manner that openly displays a religious affiliation.” One of those items was the abaya. Bandanas and long skirts were lumped together in the circular.
