New controversy in France over the “abaya”, dress of Islamic women not expressly religious but which is very popular among female students, especially in the banlieues. The Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, announced yesterday that with the new school year the “abaya”, which covers the whole body and can be bought in all department stores, will be prohibited in public schools.
The government spokesman, Olivier Véran, told the microphones of the BFM that it was “clearly” a religious habit and that the school “is the temple of secularism”. The diffusion of the “abaya” in public spaces has so far been “tolerated”, even if the dress has always been more frequently “recommended” by orthodox Islamic religious. In banlieue schools, the little girls show up in a long, loose dress that covers the whole body down to their feet and their heads wrapped in a veil, which they only push aside at the last moment as they enter the school gate.
You don’t go to school to proselytize religion but to learn. When you are in the classroom, you must not find yourself exposed to ostentatious religious signs”. “You will no longer be able to wear the abaya at school – Minister Attal announced yesterday on TV – we want to give clear rules at national level to school managers”. The minister specified that he wanted to meet all the directors and principals of schools as early as next week to help them apply this ban.
First criticisms from the leftwith La France Insoumise denouncing an “unconstitutional” measure: “how far will the clothing police go? – tweeted the deputy Clémentine Autain – Gabriel Attal’s proposal is unconstitutional, contrary to the founding principles of secularism. Symptomatic of the refusal obsessive of Muslims. As soon as they return from vacation, the Macronians are already trying to attack the Rassemblement National from the right”.