France Bans The Use Of Muslim Abayas In Public Schools

French illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Guilhem Vellut)

JAKARTA - France will ban children from wearing the abaya, the distinctive dress of Muslim women, in state-run schools, the country's education minister said on Sunday, ahead of the back-to-school season.

France, which has imposed a strict ban on religious signs in public schools since a 19th century law removed traditional Catholic influences from public education, has struggled to update guidelines to deal with its growing Muslim minority.

In 2004, they banned the headscarf in schools and issued a ban on the wearing of the veil in public in 2010, angering some of the country's five million Muslim community.

Defending secularism is a rallying cry in France that reverberates across the political spectrum, from the far left espousing liberal Enlightenment values, to right-wing voters seeking bulwarks against the growing role of Islam in French society.

"I have decided that the abaya will no longer be worn in schools," Education Minister Gabriel Attal said in an interview with TV channel TF1.

"When you walk into a classroom, you shouldn't be able to identify a student's religion just by looking at them," he said.