The ban on the abaya in educational establishments before the Council of State The Council of State, which is in a summary process, will examine, for the second time in two weeks, the ban on wearing the abaya in schools, in force since the beginning of the school year.
Two weeks after a first hearing, the Council of State, subject to the summary procedure, will once again examine the ban on wearing the abaya in schools, in force since the beginning of the school year, this Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.
At the end of August, Gabriel Attal, Minister of National Education, announced the ban in middle and high schools of this loose clothing that covers the entire body, except for the face and hands, considering the abaya as “a religious sign.” . “.
A “suspension of referral”
On September 7, the State Council had already rejected a “referral of freedom” presented by the Muslim Action-Rights Association. This group considered that this ban “violated the rights of the child” by “targeting mainly presumably Muslim children, thus creating a risk of ethnic discrimination at school.” The judge ruled that the ban on wearing the abaya did not constitute “a serious and manifestly illegal attack on a fundamental freedom.”
This time, it is three unions (Sud-Éducation, La Voix lycéenne and Le Poing leva) that have presented a “summary suspension”. This is an emergency procedure used to prevent the immediate execution of an administrative decision considered illegal. Contrary to the first summary, the unions do not criticize that the ban on the abaya contravenes respect for fundamental rights, but they consider that the decision taken by the Government is riddled with irregularities.
In a statement, the unions question the “legality of the decision”, estimating that “it is practically impossible to differentiate an abaya from a flowing long-sleeved dress as some cases have shown.”
According to them, the ban on this garment poses “a difficulty of evaluation that opens the way to discrimination” because “the distinction between an ordinary long dress and an abaya can only be based on the supposed religion or origin of the student.”
