France bans the abaya in schools and risks a new wave of protests

From our correspondent in Paris After the headscarf in schools in 2004 and the burqa in public places in 2010, France is now banning the full veil Middle Eastern jacketWhich students will not be able to bring in starting next week, when the new school year begins.

to’Abayas (for women) and Gomis (for men) It is a traditional garment of the Middle East and then spread to the Maghreb and Europe among the citizens of the Arab-Islamic culture. And in France it has become a sign of prideAnd in some cases challenge the majority.

“When you enter the classroom, it should not be possible to identify the pupils’ religion,” said new Education Minister Gabriel Atal at his return press conference. “I want implementation.” That secular shrine “This must be the school,” he added.

question toAbayas It’s been going on for at least a year because It has replaced the Islamic headscarf As proof of affiliation: Law prohibiting “visible religious signs” in schools (which also bans Jewish kippahs and crosses, for example) was approved in 2004 to free girls of Arab descent from the Islamic headscarf, which is often imposed by the males of the family.

But the more the French state tries to impose more its absorption modelAnd asking citizens to set aside part of their original identity to integrate into the nation, the more gestures of identity multiply.

in the last year Reports of “violating secularism” in schools doubled from 2,167 in 2021-2022 to 4,710 in 2022-2023, often precisely throughAbayas or the Gomis. A former minister, Pape Ndiaye, chose not to ban them, leaving it up to individual professors to assess each case.

The young caliph (34 years old) Attal, who just took office, chose the ban, but the controversy started immediately, also because the deputy head of the Muslim Worship Council, Abdullah Zakari, confirms that to’Abayas “It is not an Islamic religious symbol at all.” But if anything, it is a “bid’ah”, a sign of belonging not to Islam but to an Arab identity. So the defense of secularism seems to have nothing to do with it.

At the funeral of Nahil Marzouk, the 17-year-old Franco-Algerian boy who was killed by a policeman in Nanterre, many of his peers wore uniforms. Gomis On a Nike tracksuit. to forbid Abayas And Gomis In schools, after two months of riots, the government risks escalating tensions with part of the population of Arab origin.