France's Minister of Education Gabriel Attal said on Sunday that long loose dresses, originally from the Middle East, will no longer be allowed in schools from the new school year starting next week because they violate secular law.
Aba is a dress that covers the entire body, except for the head, and combines with a hyjab or other head covering by Muslim women in countries of the Muslim world, mainly in the Middle East.
Veran said the abaja “is clearly” religious clothing and “political attack, political sign”, which he describes as an attempt to convert to Islam.
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The school is secular. We say it very clearly but firmly: it is no place for that [religious dress agreement]”, Veran stressed for BFM television.
Attal said on Monday that the Government has made it clear that the abaja “does not have the decision in schools”.
“Our schools are being tested. In recent months, violation of secular rules has increased markedly, namely for wearing religious salaries, such as abaya or crying, which have been seen and remained in some institutions”, Attal said.
Attal's decision to ban Abayas has sparked new debate on the secular rules of France, and whether they are being used to discriminate against the country's large Muslim minority.
A law in March 2004 halted the “sign agreement or school salaries through which students show they belong to a religion”.
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This includes great crosses of Christian religion, the Jewish hat (kippas) and the Islamic headscarves.
The government has sided with rightist and far-right politicians, who have pressured the ban on this dress immediately, arguing that it is part of a broader agenda by Islamists to spread religion into society.
But leftist and many Muslim politicians describe France's secular rules as a front used by conservatives for Islamist politics.
France's constitution guarantees citizens the right to practice religion freely, but it forces the State and State employees to respect neutrality.
The ban on Abyyas is expected to have legal complaints, and this will make matters difficult for school authorities, who will have to decide when a long, loose dress is passed from a personal fashion choice to a religious attitude, the supervisor says.
