France to Ban Female Students from Wearing Abayas in Public Schools
Pupils will be banned from wearing Abayas, loose-fitting full-length robes worn by some Muslim women, in France’s state-run schools.
Education minister Gabriel Attal told France’s TF1 TV that the rule will be applied as soon as the new school year starts on 4 September.
France has a strict ban on religious signs in state schools and government buildings, arguing that they violate secular laws.
In 2010, France banned the wearing of full face veils in public which provoked anger in France’s five million-strong Muslim community.
France has enforced a strict ban on religious signs at schools since the 19th century, including Christian symbols such as large crosses, in an effort to curb any catholic influence from public education.
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It has been updating the law over the years to reflect its changing population, which now includes the Muslim headscarf and Jewish Kippa, but Abayas have not been banned outright.
“This type of policy stands in opposition to the liberal core of the 1905 Law on Separation of Church & State – a law we’ve been distorting and weaponizing since the ’90s,” Rim-Sarah Alouane, a French legal scholar and commentator, wrote of the latest abaya ban on X.
“Such policies fuel the nation’s fractures,” she added.
Attal was asked on TF1 whether guidelines on hijabs would be enforced in schools, but refrained from commenting on those garments, and instead continued to discuss abayas.
“During my meetings with (the school heads) this summer, I sensed their need for a clear rule on the national level on the issue of abayas, so the rule is now here,” the education minister said.
