Dear MEL Topic Readers,
France to ban female students from wearing abayas in state schools
France has enforced a strict ban on religious signs in state schools since 19th-century laws removed any traditional Catholic influence from public education. French public schools do not permit the wearing of large crosses, Jewish kippas, or Islamic headscarves. In 2004, the country banned headscarves in schools, and in 2010, it passed a ban on full-face veils in public, angering many in its five million-strong Muslim community. Now, the newly-appointed 34-year-old education minister announced that students are banned from wearing the abaya, the loose-fitting full-length robe worn by some Muslim women, in state-run schools from the new school year. He says secularism ensures people social or political freedom and rights through school. The ban has been supported by the rightists while being opposed by the leftists. So, what should those Muslim students wear in the new school year? Isn’t hijab or abaya part of personal identity like other clothing?
Read the article and think about what secularism means to students.
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