The hijab crisis grows in France

Students in France kicked off the new academic year, which began on September 4, under the shadow of the abaya ban.

Education Minister Gabriel Attal announced that nearly 300 students came to school wearing abayas. Attal explained that after being warned, more than half of the students took off their abaya and 67 were sent home for not complying with the ban.

The dispatch of security forces to the front of the Frédéric Mistral Institute in Avignon, one of the cities in the southeast of the country, to carry out entry controls, provoked a reaction.

The government of President Emmanuel Macron imposed a ban on wearing abayas and similar garments in schools during the new academic year on the grounds that it went against secularism, and the ban decision was submitted to the Council of State by the ADM association, which fights for Muslim rights, considering that it violates fundamental freedoms.

As reactions to the ban continued in France, teachers at the Maurice Utrillo Institute in Paris announced that they will go on strike starting tomorrow. Teachers reported that they did not control dress at the school entrance because they refused to “stigmatize” students wearing abayas and similar clothing.

MACRON’S DEFENSE

French President Macron, for his part, affirmed that the ban on the abaya, considered “anti-Islamic” by some circles and which has caused controversy because it restricts fundamental freedoms, is not to “label” anyone.

President Macron, who participated in the program broadcast by the young youtuber Hugo Decrypte on the Tiktok channel, stated that they live with a minority that “defies the Republic and secularism” and “abuses religion” in French society, and that this situation sometimes has “very bad” results.

Alluding to the murder of history teacher Samuel Paty in 2020, Macron said he was willing to test the “uniform” dress code in schools. (AGENCIES)