The education minister says female Muslim students will not be allowed to wear the loose-fitting robe.

Pupils will be banned from wearing abayas, loose-fitting full-length robes worn by some Muslim women, in France’s state-run schools, the education minister has said.

The rule will be applied as soon as the new school year starts on 4 September.

France has a strict ban on religious signs in state schools and government buildings, arguing that they violate secular laws.

Wearing a headscarf has been banned since 2004 in state-run schools.

  • Silverseren
    65•1 year ago

    The especially dumb part of this is that abayas aren’t specifically Muslim or religious in nature, they’re cultural. They are a long flowing dress, without even a head covering. A bunch of non-Islamic women wear them in a variety of countries.

    So this is more attempting to ban entire cultural outfits, which is ridiculous.

    • @ours@lemmy.filmEnglish
      13•1 year ago

      For context, the French are very strict about any form of symbol on what students wear. I couldn’t even wear a baseball cap with a team logo and that’s not religious.

      • @Mouette@jlai.luEnglish
        3•1 year ago

        Lol what the only reason they could prevent you from wearing a cap is because it’s considered ‘rude’ to keep your hat inside classroom. A private school can do whatever they want and force student to wear uniforme but in public school you can wear whatever you want except specific banned religious symbole (cross, kippa, headscarf etc…)

        • @ours@lemmy.filmEnglish
          1•1 year ago

          They just want to have a rule that doesn’t discriminate against any specific religion. Public schools have whatever rules the Government has elected. We had a weird mix between the local Government rules (mandatory uniform) plus the French public school rules (no outer religious symbols).

    • @gnygnygny@lemm.eeEnglish
      13•1 year ago

      You forgot to mention that the abaya is compulsory in Saudi Arabia (except for tourists) and Qatar.

      • @bric@lemm.eeEnglish
        18•1 year ago

        And that’s bad. Can we agree that making a dress compulsory and making a dress banned are both bad, because they both restrict choice?

      • Silverseren
        9•1 year ago

        Saudi Arabia overturned that requirement in 2019, so you’re quite a few years out of date. It is required in Qatar though, yes.