Classes start in France and the dispute over the abaya, which covers the body of Muslim women, flares up

In its defense of secularism, the French government banned the Muslim abaya, which covers the body, for female students in public schools. Now analyzes imposing uniformslike in Argentina, because in France they are not used to go to school.

This Monday classes began throughout the country and the prohibition began to be experienced. There are difficulties in 500 schools and 67 students refused to take them off and were sent home.

But at the beginning of school classes, the abaya case reached the Council of State this Tuesday, highest French court of justice, which will decide if it is legal or not and secularism affects the government decision.

Until now the abaya is not considered a religious symbol by the Council. It could fall into the “ethnic profile” category and its prohibition could result in discrimination.

But the abaya, a tribal traditioninitially Afghan Pashtun, then Bedouin and non-religious, which emerged with Western colonization, when women could be red by soldiers and suffer the family “honor crime”, is indispensable for Salafist Muslim families.

Although it does not pear in the Koran, they practice a rigorous Islam, like that of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Due, They withdraw their daughters from schoolswith the risk of unschooling.

Despite the measure announced by Emmanuel Macron’s government, 67 students refused to go to school without the abaya. Was a letter to parents from the Minister of Education, pedagogy of the directors but there was no way. President Emmnaul Macron assures that he is not “stigmatizing Muslims” but the controversy is enormous and provocative. Being Muslim implies a lifestyle: in what they eat, in how they dress, in their holidays, in their behavior, which clashes with French school secularism.

Finally, the abaya arrived on Friday morning at the Council of State, the nation’s highest judicial body. He must be issued.

The complainants before the Council are also concerned about “unjustified interference in the exercise of Muslim worship”, with the ban on wearing the abaya in schools, considering it “a serious and manifestly illegal attack on freedom of religion”.

The Council of State will examine this Tuesday the request against the ban on the abaya in school. It was urgently submitted by an association, which also contacted the Ombudsman, according to information obtained on Monday.

The Council of State began this Tuesday to examine the summary release order. An emergency procedurepresented on Friday on behalf of the association Action Droits des Musulmans (ADM), to obtain the suspension of this ban, according to information obtained from the highest administrative court.

In the case of summary procedures, the administrative justice code establishes that the decision is issued within 48 hours following the conclusion of the investigation.

The request refers to a decision of the Minister of Education of August 27, 2023 that prohibits the wearing of the abaya, a long traditional dress in Arab countries, in public schools, colleges and secondary schools.

ADM’s lawyers also pealed on Monday to rights defender Claire Hedon against this decision, asking her to “intervene in the proceedings” before the Council of State.

Otherwise, “we ask you to take a position on the ban” of the abaya in school, said Vincent Brengarth, arguing “an attack on education” and “private life”, in particular.

For the complainants, this ban “violates the rights of the child, because it is mainly aimed at presumably Muslim children, thus creating a risk of ethnic discrimination at school”.

The restriction risks “undermining their fundamental rights at a social, cultural and educational level,” they add.

The summary also denounces a prohibition “formulated in a vague and broad manner”, with the consequence that “the absence of an indication that allows defining the clothing” in question could affect students, who simply wish to wear “loose clothing, which can be classified as ‘abayas or qamis’.

The plaintiffs are also concerned about “unjustified interferences in the exercise of Muslim worship”, considering them “a serious and manifestly illegal attack on freedom of religion.”

The Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, took stock this Tuesday of the ban on the abaya for the start of the school year.

On Monday, “298 people” showed up at schools dressed in this long traditional dress, explained the Minister of National Education.

“There was then this whole phase of explanations, dialogue, pedagogy, and a large majority complied with the norm,” he continued. However, 67 people refused to remove their abaya. In accordance with the new regulations in force, “they returned home,” Attal explained.

“In the next few days they will return because they have to be at school. Then we will see if they have complied with the standard or not,” she stated. “Otherwise, there will be a new dialogue. This is how we will continue to move forward,” the minister remarked.

Attal also signed a letter addressed to the parents of those affected to “explain to them that the school does not stigmatize anyone.” But “the rules must be plied”, especially in matters of secularism.

The official announced the abaya ban last week to give “clear nationwide rules” to school leaders and enforce the 2004 law on the use of religious symbols in school. A point that is the subject of debate, since the abaya is not recognized as such by the French Council of Muslim Worship.

President Emmanuel Macron assures that the ban “does not stigmatize anyone.” The president says he is in favor of experimenting with uniforms or “unique outfits” at school.

For his part, Macron provoked the ire of the left by evoking the murder of Samuel Paty during conversations about the abaya ban with cameraman Hugo Decrypte. Paty was murdered by an Islamist at the Yvelines school when the teacher argued with his students the caricature of the Prophet Mohamed, made by the comedians of Charlie Hebdo, who were murdered by two jihadist brothers in the editorial office in the Bastille neighborhood, in Paris.