The abaya continues to be controversial in the French political landscape. While the Minister of Education Gabriel Attal announced his ban on schools and national education establishments, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party, La France Insoumise, intends to seize the Council of State on the question.
The coordinator of La France insoumise Manuel Bompard announced Tuesday his intention to seize the Council of State to attack the “cruel” decision of the Minister of National Education to ban the wearing of the abaya in schools. “I will propose to our parliamentary group to attack the Council of State this regulation because I think that it will be contrary to the Constitution, that in my opinion it is dangerous, it is cruel”, declared on France 2 the deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône.
According to him, this ban will “result in once again discrimination against young women and in particular young women of the Muslim faith and I think that we do not need that in our country”. “The religious authorities of the Muslim faith say that the abayas are not a religious outfit and therefore I am attached to the defense of secularism, (…) I do not see why it should be banned”, a- he argued, emphasizing expecting “something else from the Minister of National Education than going to stir up fears and fantasies”.
A “Pandora’s box”
“When you start regulating outfits, especially women’s outfits, you’re opening a Pandora’s box that you can’t get out of,” he warned.
The abaya, a long traditional dress covering the body, which the government has decided to ban at school promising “clear rules at the national level”, is the new symbol of friction on the left, of the elected officials of the PS and the PCF approving it in particular in the name of the principle of secularism, LFI denouncing an Islamophobic decision and environmentalists a “stigma”.