“Abaya has no place in our schools”. French government calls for secularism in face of criticism for banning Islamic dress in schools – The Observer

The French government responded to the criticism on Monday, Mostly from the leftHarassed by the Muslim community when it decided to ban the Islamic women’s dress abaya in educational institutions, Calls for secularism in classrooms.

“There is no place for the abaya in our schools”, this Monday Education Minister Gabriel Attal, already ruled on Sunday. It announced one of the most controversial measures Before the school year starts soon. According to the figure, the size is extended Any symbol of a religious nature.

“We can no longer use the ‘abaya’ in school,” says the French education minister

Under the terms of a 2004 law banning the display of religious symbols, the garment has, until now, been in a state of limbo, but Atal considers it so. It is time to move towards secularism in France.

For this reason, he promised that the Ministry of Education will provide specific training to the directors of about 14,000 educational institutions this year. According to government spokesman Olivier Véran, the abaya is “clearly” a religious symbol. “We have always been clear: School Secularism Temple“, he defended in an interview with station BFM television.

Conservative voices such as Republican Party Chairman Eric Ciotti supported the measure, while far-right politicians such as Eric Zemmure, That said, it’s a good first stepBut insisted on moving forward, for example, towards “Generalization” of compulsory uniform.

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The Socialist Party, for its part, lamented the start of the school year In any case, it was overshadowed by a seemingly trivial problem But for Jean-Luc Mélenchon of France Insubmissa (LFI) it is about “a new absurd religious war”. “Artificially” locked.

The announcement of the abaya comes days after the French newspaper Le Figaro and other media published the results of a report by state services revealing an outbreak of what they described as “attacks on secularism” in schools. .

In the academic year 2022-2023, 4,710 complaints have been filed in this regardIn 2021-2022, that was less than half, with 2,167 different.