Alexis Delafontaine, edited by Loane Nader // photo credit: Sébastien BOZON / AFP
This Monday, 10,000 principals of National Education establishments were in front of their screens to listen to the statements of Gabriel Attal, about the ban on the abaya. Less than a week before the start of the school year, all school staff will have to enforce the will of the Ministry of Education with schoolchildren, middle and high school students.
In less than a week, schoolchildren will return to school in a tense context around the wearing of the abaya at school, now banned by the Minister of National Education Gabriel Attal. Political reactions were obviously not long in coming on this subject which has been dividing for months. Even within the parties and political sides, tension reigns and disagreements are created. This is particularly the case on the left, where the PS and the PCF approve of this decision, while La France Insoumise denounces an Islamophobic decision.
“They will be numerous, determined”
From a technical point of view, it remains to be seen how this measure will be implemented. For Elias Dimzalene, community political influencer, students who wear this long, loose dress traditional in Muslim countries will not comply with this ban. “The clothing police already existed in many high schools. These young women were harassed by their director in some establishments, sometimes it was supervisors who were ordered to do so,” he says. “And yet, they did not submit to his injunctions, not submit to this clothing police. And I think that once again, they will not submit.”
Moreover, according to Elias Dimzalene, the current situation differs from that of March 15, 2004, the year in which the government issued the law prohibiting “the wearing of signs or clothing showing religious affiliation in public schools, colleges and high schools”. The wearing of the Islamic veil, the yarmulke or a “manifestly excessive” cross was therefore prohibited from that date. “The big difference with 2004 is that this time they will be many, determined, I think, to live free and to live being who they are, Muslims. I don’t see how we could criminalize the fact to be a Muslim, and his appearance”, finally defends the influencer.