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 tough secular education rules.
Education Minister Gabriel Attal stated on TF1 television that “clear rules at the national level” would be provided to school administrators prior to the start of schools across the country on September 4.
In French schools, where women have long been prohibited from donning the Islamic headscarf, the decision was made after months of debate about the wearing of abayas.
The left contended that the ban would violate civil freedoms, but the right and extreme right had advocated for it.
According to reports, abayas are being worn in schools more frequently, and there are conflicts between instructors and parents about it.
According to Attal, “secularism means the freedom to emancipate oneself through education.” He called the abaya “a religious gesture, intended to test the republic’s resistance toward the secular sanctuary that school must constitute.”
When you walk into a classroom, you shouldn’t be able to tell the students’ religion just by looking at them, he added.
The wearing of “signs or outfits by students ostensibly showing a religious affiliation” in schools was prohibited by a law passed in March 2004.
Large crosses, Jewish kippas, and Islamic head scarves are examples of this.
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.
However, the education ministry had previously released a circular on the subject in November of the previous year.
The abaya was described as one of several articles of apparel that might be prohibited from being worn if they were “worn in a manner that openly displays a religious affiliation.” The circular included long skirts and bandanas in the same classification.
Differing opinions
Pap Ndiaye, Attal’s predecessor as education minister, responded when asked about the matter by head teachers’ unions that he did not want “to publish endless catalogues to specify the lengths of dresses.”
Bruno Bobkiewicz, at least one union leader, applauded Attal’s declaration on Sunday.
“The instructions were not clear, but they are now, and we welcome it,” said Bobkiewicz, general secretary of the NPDEN-UNSA, an organisation that advocates for head teachers.
Right-wing Republican opposition leader Eric Ciotto also praised the news.
“We requested several times that abayas be prohibited in our schools,” he stated.
The “policing of clothing,” however, was condemned by Clementine Autain of the left-wing opposition party France Unbowed.
She claimed that Attal’s announcement was “unconstitutional,” against the tenets of secularism in France, and evidence of the government’s “obsessive rejection of Muslims.”
She claimed that President Emmanuel Macron’s administration had just returned from the summer break and was already pitting itself against Marine Le Pen’s extreme National Rally.
Since teacher Samuel Paty, who had shown students caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, was beheaded in 2020 by a radicalised Chechen refugee near his school in a suburb of Paris, the discussion has been more heated.
Clothing alone is not “a religious sign,” according to the CFCM, an organisation on the national level that represents numerous Muslim organisations.
The statement marks Attal’s first significant action since this summer, when he was promoted to manage the extremely sensitive education portfolio.
He is regarded as a rising star who might be crucial once Macron leaves office in 2027, along with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, 40.
