‘Abaya has no place in schools’: France bans ‘new phenomenon’ to ‘protect' secularism

livemint.com:

France had become the first European country in 2011 when it imposed a ban on full-face veils. Further in 2004, France had banned the wearing of hijabs and other religious symbols in state schools. On Monday, the newly-appointed 34-year-old education minister of France said that wearing of long robes will be banned starting with the new school year, saying the garments worn mainly by Muslims are testing secularism in the nation's schools.

For Gabriel Attal, the garments are “an infringement on secularism," a foundational principle for France, and, in some cases, a bid to destabilize schools. The 34-year-old Attal, appointed in July, was potentially moving into a minefield with his ban on long robes to “protect" secularism, prompted by growing reports of the garments in some classrooms around the country. Notably, previous statements and laws on secularism have seeded acrimonious debate.

“Our schools are continually tested. We know that," Attal said at a news conference a week ahead of the start of the school year. He said that the wearing of abayas and khamis, a “new phenomenon," has recently grown, and must be met with a firm response to tackle what sometimes amounts to “infringements, attempts at destabilization." “We must stand together.

We will stand together. ... The abaya has no place in school, no more than religious symbols," Attal said, referring to the 2004 law which banned Muslim headscarves, Jewish kippas, large crosses and other “ostentatious" religious accoutrements from classrooms.