Top French Court Upholds Abaya Ban in Schools

A high courtroom in France on Thursday upheld a brand new authorities decree barring kids in public colleges from carrying the abaya, a loosefitting, full-length gown worn by some Muslim ladies, in a blow to critics who had referred to as the ban discriminatory and had filed an emergency petition to strike it down.

The Council of State, France’s high administrative courtroom, which has jurisdiction over disputes regarding civil liberties, dominated that the ban was not a “serious and obviously illegal infringement of a fundamental freedom.”

Wearing an abaya is a part of a “logic of religious affirmation,” the courtroom mentioned in a assertion, including that the ban was due to this fact according to a French legislation that “prohibits the wearing by pupils of signs or clothing ostensibly expressing religious affiliation, either in and of themselves, or because of the pupil’s behavior.”

Since 2004, college students haven’t been capable of put on “ostentatious” symbols which have a transparent non secular which means, like Catholic crosses, Jewish skullcaps or Muslim head scarves, in center and excessive colleges.

While the abaya — a protracted gown that covers the legs and arms however not the palms, ft or head — falls right into a grayer space, in France it’s largely worn by Muslim ladies who wish to comply with the Quran’s teachings on modesty.

Until final week, it was as much as particular person principals to determine whether or not the 2004 guidelines utilized. The authorities mentioned that the nationwide ban was merely an replace to the prevailing guidelines that was wanted to cease a ballooning variety of disputes in its secular faculty system.

The variety of incidents in colleges associated to “laïcité” — France’s model of secularism, which ensures freedom of conscience but additionally the neutrality of the state and of some public areas — greater than tripled over the past faculty 12 months in contrast with the one earlier than, from about 600 to just about 2,000, in line with the French authorities. Many of these incidents associated to college students’ carrying of abayas, the authorities say.

But critics of the ban say it’s a discriminatory measure that unfairly polices the clothes of Muslim women and unnecessarily places them on the middle of yet one more political firestorm over the best way they gown. Action Droits des Musulmans, a Muslim advocacy group, had filed the emergency petition.

The group mentioned in a assertion after Thursday’s ruling that it was “deeply concerned about the consequences this decision could have on young girls, who risk being discriminated against on a daily basis because of their ethnic and religious appearance.”

The ban, which additionally applies to related however much less widespread full-length robes worn by boys, went into impact on Monday as thousands and thousands of scholars returned to courses after the summer time break.

Gabriel Attal, France’s training minister, mentioned that about 300 college students arrived at college on Monday morning carrying abayas. Sixty-seven of them have been despatched house after refusing to take them off, he mentioned.

“I obviously want to enforce rules at school, but a rule has to be explained,” Mr. Attal instructed the BFMTV news channel on Tuesday. He mentioned faculty officers have been in fixed “dialogue” with college students who refused to adjust to the ban, and with their households.

While an amazing majority of scholars have complied with the ban, some query the federal government’s priorities.

In Stains, a northern suburb of Paris, lecturers at a neighborhood highschool organized a protest on Wednesday accusing the federal government of fueling debates over the abaya as an alternative of adequately funding and renovating their institution.

Safiatou Baradji, a Tenth-grade scholar who wore a Muslim veil outdoors of college, mentioned that she had often worn an abaya through the earlier faculty 12 months and insisted that it was “a normal piece of clothing.”

But in its ruling, the Council of State famous that typically, college students who have been confronted by faculty officers for carrying an abaya mentioned they have been doing so primarily for non secular causes — which means that the 2004 legislation clearly utilized.

Noah Sevede, one other Tenth-grade scholar in Stains, mentioned a lot of the college students at his faculty who wore a Muslim veil additionally wore an abaya outdoors faculty, together with his sister — who had not wished to come back to class till his dad and mom compelled her. But he mentioned French authorities ought to concentrate on enhancing materials situations in colleges as an alternative of policing clothes.

“There are other things that need to be fixed first,” he mentioned. “Who are they to tell girls how to dress?”

Juliette Guéron-Gabrielle contributed reporting from Stains, France.