The mass French return to work, known as the “rentrée,” is often marked by renewed social conflict. This year has been no exception as the summer lull has given way to yet another battle over a recurrent national obsession: How Muslim women should dress.
Late last month, with France still in vacation mode, Gabriel Attal, 34, the newly appointed education minister and a favorite of President Emmanuel Macron, declared that “the abaya can no longer be worn in schools.”
His abrupt order, which applies to public middle and high schools, banished the loosefitting full-length robe worn by some Muslim students and ignited another storm over French identity.
The government believes the role of education is to dissolve ethnic or religious identity in a shared commitment to the rights and responsibilities of French citizenship and so, as Mr. Attal put it, “you should not be able to distinguish or identify the students’ religion by looking at them.” » | Roger Cohen, Reporting from Paris | Friday, September 15, 2023
Isn’t life strange? At the very time that Iranian women are fighting to be able to throw of the encumbrance of the abaya, young French students are fighting for their right to wear it!
In Iran, many young Iranian women have lost eyes and all sorts fighting for their right to be free. Young French Muslims don’t know how lucky they are that the French government is looking after their rights and interests.
How much longer must the long-suffering French authorities—and people—put up with this nonsense? These young girls are troublemakers; they are pushing their weight around; they are trying it on. This is politics; it is not religion. These young students are being perverse and unreasonable. Don’t they know, don’t they understand, that they go to school to be educated, not to make political statements?
One of the hallmarks of French society is laïcité, as these young women know only too well. Laïcité is there to ensure that all can live together in peace and harmony. The nearest word to laïcité in English is secularism, but there is a difference. Secularism stresses individual freedom of religion; but French laïcité stresses collective freedom from religion and religious institutions. Laïcité was born out of the desire to free French society from the shackles and domination of the Roman Catholic Church. This also explains why the French are sensitive about re-introducing religious symbolism back into everyday French life.
How lucky young French Muslim students are! They should therefore start appreciating the freedoms that the French government affords them; and they should look over their shoulders at their Iranian sisters in Islam, who are so oppressed by the Iranian government. If they did this, they would be able to start to appreciate the freedoms afforded them by the French government and society. – © Mark Alexander
If you would like to read more about French laïcité and US secularism, please click here.
