The rule will be applied as soon as the new school year starts on 4 September.
France has a strict ban on religious signs in state schools and government buildings, arguing that they violate secular laws. Wearing a headscarf has been banned since 2004 in state-run schools.
Verwandter Artikel auf Deutsch.
Schoolchildren are more usually and more correctly referred to as pupils rather than students. Is, perhaps, the word 'students' being used here by the BBC to obfuscate the issue?
In regard to the banning of abayas and hijabs, the French are right to ban these modes of dress for schoolchildren. In a good, well-functioning establishment dedicated to the education of children, difference should be minimised. This goes for children of different religious- as well as children of different socio-economic backgrounds. Children need to be well-socialised. Well-socialised children grow up to be well-socialised in the community, too. Fostering difference, by contrast, leads to disharmony and even strife in society.
Regarding the wearing of hijabs, abayas and other types of headscarves, headcoverings and body coverings, even for the strictest and most devout of Muslim families, they are totally unnecessary before puberty. One should always ask oneself WHY headcoverings and other such garments become mandatory for Muslim women. (Please note that I use here the word 'women' not 'girls'. A clear distinction should, and must, be made here.) It is because of hair and the figure having the potential to arouse and excite the senses. For this reason, it is customary in Islamic societies to insist on long, loose clothing and full head coverings in order to hide the potential cause of sexual arousal. In actual fact, the very word hijab means curtain! Therefore, the wearing of a hijab is tantamount to hiding one’s adornment, beautiful hair behind a curtain, as is the wearing of long, loose abayas. A pre-pubescent girl is not, and should not be, troubled by such matters, exactly because they are pre-pubescent. Therefore, in conclusion, anyone who insists on the wearing of a hijab or abaya in a school environment is quite possibly making a political, rather than a religious, statement. Even in Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam, when I was there, it was not customary to dress young girls up in such clothing. Children should be allowed to be children. It belongs to a healthy development in childhood. – © Mark Alexander
