“We will no longer be able to wear the abaya at school” in France, Gabriel Atal said.
Asked about the controversial topic after incidents involving the use of an “abaya”, a long traditional garment or tunic that covers the whole body, the minister announced on TF1 TV that he would like to speak “starting next week” with the government. School officials to help them enforce this ban.
The minister stressed that “secularism is the freedom of liberation through school.” After his appointment to the Ministry of National Education and Youth at the end of last July, the official considered that going to school wearing the “cloak” is a “religious gesture aimed at testing the republic’s resistance to the secular campus that should be the school,” promising to be “firm in this regard.”
Enter the classroom [e] “He should not be able to learn about the students’ religion by looking at them,” the minister said again today on TF1.
The issue of the use of the “cloak”, which is not considered an Islamic religious symbol according to the French Council of Islamic Worship (CFCM), was the subject of a circular from the Ministry of Education last November.
In this circular, “abayas” – as well as bandanas and long skirts also mentioned – are among the garments that can be banned if they are “used in a way that ostensibly shows religious affiliation.”
But those in charge of educational institutions were waiting for clearer rules in this regard in light of the escalation of incidents.
According to a memorandum from state agencies, of which Agence France-Presse obtained a copy, attacks on secularism, which are much more numerous since the killing of Professor Samuel Paty in 2020 near his school, increased by 120% between the academic year 2022/2023 and 2021/2022. .
Since the law of March 15, 2004, “Schools, colleges, and public secondary schools are prohibited from using signs or uniforms by which students outwardly display their religious affiliation.”
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