Paris bans wearing abaya and qamis in schools.

Paris: The Minister of National Education, Youth and Sports, Gabriel Attal, announced on Sunday, 27 August 2023, during an interview with the TV programme ‘20 heures’, on TF1, the introduction of a ban on wearing the abaya in schools. “The schools of the Republic are built around strong principles, such as secularism. When you enter a classroom, you should not be able to identify the religion of the pupils by looking at them,’ he argued, responding to requests for clarification from some teachers.

Questioned on this controversial issue for several months following incidents related to the wearing of these clothes, the Minister announced that he would hold talks “as early as next week” with school leaders to help them implement this ban.

“Our schools are being tested. In recent months, religious clothing such as the abaya and qamis have appeared in some schools. The firmness of the school response is being tested by these new phenomena. In the face of blows, attacks, and attempts at destabilization, we must remain united. And we will remain united,’ the minister had already assured the rectors gathered at the Sorbonne in Paris earlier in the week.

On Thursday, 31 August, at the same time as the publication in the Bulletin officiel de l’éducation nationale, de la jeunesse et des sports of the provision, the Minister declared that pupils who turn up at school wearing the abaya will not be allowed to enter the classroom, but ‘will be welcomed’ by teachers and headmasters, who will have to ‘explain to them the meaning’ of the ban at the start of the new school year.

According to the published provision, in fact, ‘in some schools, the growing tendency to wear abaya or qamis has given rise to many questions about how to behave. These questions require a clear and unified answer from schools across the country’.

According to the law of 15 March 2004, therefore, ‘the wearing of such garments, which apparently manifest religious affiliation in the school environment, cannot be tolerated,’ the note reads. “After a dialogue with the pupil, if the latter refuses to refrain from wearing it inside the school or during school activities, disciplinary proceedings must be initiated,” the text continues.

Stefano Testa Bappenheim

University of Camerino