Elisabeth Borne on Sunday challenged any “stigma” after the decision to ban the wearing of the abaya in schools at the start of the school year, denouncing in passing “attempts at provocation” and “manipulation” on the question, “in particular” of La France insoumise. “I can clearly see that there is manipulation and attempts at provocation on the part of some. I am thinking in particular of LFI”, declared the Prime Minister in an interview with RTL. “But I want to say things very clearly: there is no stigma. Each of our fellow citizens, whatever their religion, has its place in our country,” she said.
The Minister of Education Gabriel Attal announced last week that this long garment worn by women, the religious nature of which has long been debated, would finally be prohibited in schools. “There is a principle, it is secularism. And there is a law which prohibits the wearing of any sign or outfit by which a pupil manifests his belonging to a religion. This is the law which must apply to all and we will ensure that it is properly applied”, insisted Elisabeth Borne. The ban, which also applies to the wearing of the qamis, a male version of the abaya, is however the subject of an interim order before the Council of State by an association for the defense of Muslims.
“Political Islam has been testing us for years”
Questioned in turn on the subject on Sunday, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire welcomed this measure banning the abaya, which according to him is “a new test of political Islam against the Republic” and who “has no place in the school of the Republic”. “I welcome and I support 100% the decision of the Minister of Education Gabriel Attal to ban abayas in public schools, in secular and republican schools”, he insisted on BFMTV.
“Political Islam has been testing us for years, testing our limits, our capacity for resistance, testing our determination. It is good that at some point a Minister of National Education, responsible for schools, the training of our children, the transmission of our culture, the enhancement of what makes us a nation, say stop to political Islam”. Regarding the application of the measure in establishments, “there will be difficulties, but it does not matter”, estimated Bruno Le Maire. “Difficulties have too often served as a pretext for inaction, not to say cowardice”.