Girls who refused to remove banned garment given letter saying ‘secularism is not a constraint, it is a liberty’, says minister
On the first day of the new academic year French schools sent home dozens of girls for refusing to remove their abayas, the education minister said on Tuesday.
Defying a ban on the Muslim garment, nearly 300 girls showed up on Monday morning wearing an abaya, Gabriel Attal told the BFM broadcaster. Most agreed to change, but 67 refused and were sent home, he said.
The government announced last month it was banning the abaya in schools, saying it broke the rules on secularism in education that have already led to Muslim headscarves being banned on the grounds they constitute a display of religious affiliation.
The move gladdened the political right but critics argued it represented an affront to civil liberties.
