Critics have called the ban a discriminatory policing of teenagers’ clothing, fuelling yet another debate in France over the way Muslim women dress.
France will ban children in public schools from wearing the abaya, a loose-fitting, full-length robe worn by some Muslim women, the government said this week. It said the measure was necessary to stem a growing number of disputes in its secular school system.
The abaya, however – a long dress that covers the legs and arms, but not the hands, feet or head – falls into a grey area. While it is popular in the Persian Gulf and in some Arab countries, it does not have a clear religious significance. Laïcité applies to numerous public institutions – public hospital employees, for instance, cannot wear religious clothing – and there is strong cultural aversion to public expressions of faith.But schools have historically been the focal point of debates around the issue.
“The same behaviour can have a totally different meaning depending on the person and on the context,” she said. French schools are seen as neutral spaces that forge citizenship and where students can be shielded from religious influences.Sophie Venetitay, head of one of the main teacher unions, called the ban a “political manoeuvre” by President Emmanuel Macron to curry favour with the right. But, she added, abayas were a real issue that should neither be “overestimated nor underestimated”.
But Jerome Guedj, a Socialist MP, said that if abayas were worn as an ostentatious religious symbol, they clearly violated the law. “It is not a clothing police but a policing of proselytising in school,” he said.In November, Attal’s predecessor, Pap Ndiaye, said headmasters could ban clothing even if it did not have any inherent religious significance, including long skirts or bandannas, if officials believed that they were worn “to ostensibly express a religious belonging”.
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