Two months after nationwide migrant riots, France is set to ban school girls from wearing abaya, the full length Islamic dress. “France’s education minister is seeking to ban the traditional over-garment on the grounds that it is an ostensibly religious symbol,” the French newspaper Le Monde reported Tuesday.
As France faces a surge in unregulated migration from the Middle East and Muslim-majority North Africa, the government in Paris appears to be worried at the prospect of Islam replacing the country’s long-standing secular tradition.
“Government spokesman Olivier Veran backed the move on Monday, saying abayas were ‘obviously’ a religious garment and ‘a political attack’ which he likened to an act of ‘proselytizing’ — trying to convert people to Islam,” state-owned France24 TV channel France24 reported.
The France-based TV channel Euronews reported the proposed ban:
French Education Minister announced that the traditional clothing known as abaya will be banned in schools in the name of secularism. Certain Muslim students wear this loose dress on top of other clothes.Almost twenty years after the law restricting religious clothing and symbols in French schools was introduced, the debate is still not over.”Abayas won’t be allowed anymore in schools”, France’s new education minister Gabriel Attal declared on Sunday.The abaya is a long and loose traditional dress that covers the whole body and is worn in Maghreb and in the Gulf region. It isn’t directly associated with Islam as no text requires Muslim women to wear it.”Standing together means being clear: the abaya has no place in our schools. Nor do other religious symbols”, said Attal.
In 2010, France banned full-face coverings worn by Muslim women in public spaces. Women risk a fine of €150 for wearing Sharia-compliant garbs such as burka or niqab. “No one may, in a public space, wear any article of clothing intended to conceal the face,” the French law says.
Similar restrictions are also in place in other European nations. “Other countries in Europe have introduced legislation on Islamic dress. Denmark’s parliament enacted a ban on wearing of face veils in public in May. Belgium, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and the German state of Bavaria have also imposed some restrictions on full-face veils in public places,” Reuters reported in October 2018.
Though President Emmanuel Macron won’t face an election before 2027, his main rival, Marine Le Pen, is gaining in popularity among French voters. A poll in April showed that Le Pen would beat Macron 55 to 45 in a direct run-off. Le Pen’s policy of opposing mass-migration was vindicated after the recent migrant riots. Paris and other cities across France resembled war zones, as migrant mobs clashed with police, and set fire to cars and buildings.
The proposed ban on abaya could well be a political ploy by President Macron to appear tough in the face of the rapid Islamization of French society. “Politicians on the right and far right had pushed for an outright ban on abayas – with many in recent years arguing that the ban on wearing all religious symbols should be widened to universities and even parents accompanying children on school outings,” British newspaper The Guardian reported. “The far-right leader Marine Le Pen went further in her presidential campaign last year, proposing to ban all Muslim headscarves from public streets.”
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