Ban on Muslim Dress in Schools Stokes Culture War in France
NICE, France—Nawel Moumen, a 13-year-old French Muslim, was taken aside last spring by the dean of her middle school. The robe-like dress she had on was inappropriate, Moumen recalled the dean saying, because he considered it a religious garment. He warned her she would face detention if she wore it again.
France is expanding the definition of what kinds of clothes are unacceptable under the rules of laïcité, the country’s strict separation of religion and state. For nearly two decades, public schools have barred students from wearing a visible Christian cross, a Jewish kippah, a Muslim headscarf or any other religious symbol deemed ostentatious by school officials. But the abaya—a long, cloak-like covering—was a gray area until recently.
The garment doesn’t cover the head or face, but Muslim women in parts of North Africa and the Middle East traditionally wear it with a headscarf. In France, female students began wearing the abaya—without a headscarf in the classroom—as an extra layer of clothing because it covers their arms and legs, in compliance with what they say are Muslim teachings. With the new school year about to start, President Emmanuel Macron’s education minister stepped in and banned the abaya, ratcheting up France’s long-running culture war over how far the government should go in enforcing laïcité rules in a country that is home to one of Europe’s biggest Muslim minorities—estimated to be around 9% of the French population.
Muslim leaders said the very definition of what constitutes an abaya is vague, opening the door to discrimination against Muslim students. Picking what to wear in the morning for school has become a headache for Moumen. She didn’t consider the robe-like dress that drew the warning to
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