France’s Crackdown on Islamic Dress in Schools Is a Crude Attack on Muslims
France’s education minister has banned girls in public schools from wearing the abaya, a loose-fitting Islamic dress. Emmanuel Macron’s government is whipping up conflict over identity — but ignoring the real problems that face France’s underfunded classrooms.
A rally to protest against the government’s abaya dress ban in schools in the suburbs of Paris, France, on September 6, 2023. (Mohamad Salaheldin Abdelg Alsayed / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
French public school students are no longer allowed to wear an abaya, a loose-fitting dress popular in Arab and Muslim communities. “When you enter a classroom, you should not be able to identify the religion of students by looking at them,” education minister Gabriel Attal told broadcaster TF1 on August 27.
The ministerial order draws on France’s infamous 2004 law outlawing “conspicuous” religious symbols such as the Islamic veil, large and visible Christian crosses, and kippahs from state schools. The abaya dress now counts as one such violation of “laïcité,” the country’s variant of secularism that professes to maintain the neutrality of public institutions relative to religion.
Coming on the cusp of France’s ceremonious back-to-school season, Attal’s announcement was perfectly timed to capture the news cycle, in the way that only sallies over the country’s ever-controversial “Muslim question” seem primed for. Talk shows took to analyzing the supposed prudery of a subset of French school girls. Media set about reporting on figures that upward of three hundred students attended the first day of school dawning an abaya, sixty-seven of whom purportedly refused to change outfits. Camped outside school gates, television crews stood by dutifully for the latest scoop from school administrators.
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