During the 8 p.m. TF1 on Sunday August 27, 2023, Gabriel Attal, Minister of National Education, decided to address a thorny subject: attacks on secularism in French schools. He took this opportunity to announce that the wearing of the abaya would henceforth be prohibited in schools. The aim is to establish “clear rules at national level”, he specified. The Minister also indicated that he would meet with the heads of educational establishments “from next week” in order to facilitate the application of this new directive. “We will no longer be able to wear the abaya at school”he said, hammering that “secularism is a freedom to emancipate through school“. Since his appointment to rue de Grenelle at the end of July 2023, Gabriel Attal had expressed his firmness on this issue, believing that going to school in an abaya was “a religious gesture, aimed at testing the resistance of the Republic to the secular sanctuary that the School must constitute”.
More and more “attacks on secularism”
This measure comes in a particularly tense climate around secularism in France. Attacks on this principle have indeed increased by 120% between the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 school year, according to a confidential note from the State services whoseAFP was able to obtain a copy, report TF1. Among these attacks, the wearing of signs and clothing ostensibly manifesting a religious affiliationsuch as the abaya, has seen an increase more than 150% during the last school year. However, according to the minister, “you enter a classroom, you must not be able to identify the religion of the students by looking at them”. The issue of wearing the abaya is not new and had already been addressed by a National Education circular in November 2022. This document indicated that the abaya, like bandanas and long skirts, could be prohibited if they were “worn in such a way as to conspicuously manifest a religious affiliation”. However, this directive was not enough to allay the concerns of the heads of establishments who demanded more explicit directives. It’s now done.