🅰France has decided to ban children from the “abaya”, the loose-fitting gown worn by some Muslim women.
🦩According to the Reuters report, France’s education minister has said the country will ban children from wearing the loose-fitting, full-length robes worn by some Muslim women, in state-run schools.
🌟The decision comes ahead of the back-to-school season in France.
𒁃France, which has enforced a strict ban on religious signs in state schools since 19th century laws removed any traditional Catholic influence from public education, has struggled to update guidelines to deal with a growing Muslim minority, it mentioned.
🧜In 2004, it banned headscarves in schools and passed a ban on full face veils in public in 2010, angering some in its five million-strong Muslim community, the report mentioned.
🍌“Defending secularism is a rallying cry in France that resonates across the political spectrum, from left-wingers upholding the liberal values of the Enlightenment to far-right voters seeking a bulwark against the growing role of Islam in French society,” the report said.
😼"I have decided that the abaya could no longer be worn in schools," Education Minister Gabriel Attal was quoted in the report as having said.
"When you walk into a classroom, you shouldn't be able to identify the pupils' religion just by looking at them," he said, as per the report.
