A new bone of contention has inflamed the French left, as Education Minister Gabriel Attal announced on August 27 the abaya would be banned from schools. "Attacks on secularism have increased considerably," he justified, likening this long garment of Middle Eastern origin worn by young Muslim girls to a "religious garment" in the same way as the qamis, its equivalent worn by men.
That's all it took to revive the divide over secularism on the left. "Sad to see the start of the new school year politically polarized by yet another absurd and entirely artificial religious war over women's clothing," lamented La France Insoumise (LFI, hard-left) leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, calling for "civil peace" and "true secularism that unites rather than exasperates". LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard announced on French television channel France 2 on Tuesday morning his decision to challenge the ban at the Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative court.
The line is the antithesis of that taken by the Communists and the Socialist Party (PS), which voted for the 2004 law banning religious symbols in schools. "Our compass is the ban on ostensible signs in schools," retorted Socialist MP Jérôme Guedj, who is in favor of a ban on abayas. "Secularism is, along with Europe, the most divisive issue on the left," political scientist Rémi Lefebvre pointed out. "A large portion of the PS sticks to a fairly strict secularism and part of LFI and the ecologists have a more accommodating conception of it in the name of defending minorities – and well-understood electoral interests," according to Jérôme Fourquet, director of the Opinion department at IFOP, the French institute of public opinion.
"As soon as the abaya or qamis are worn in an ostentatious way, they should be banned, as the 2004 law allows, without any major difficulties," said Guedj, drawing the wrath of MP Nadège Abomangoli (LFI). "A European list with this? No thanks," she replied on X (formerly Twitter) referring to the June 2024 European elections.
At the heart of the controversy is whether or not the clothing is religious. For Guedj, who urges his partners on the left to "not be angelic," there is no doubt. "There are people with a political project to challenge secularism," he says. It was therefore necessary to "send out a clear message in the face of a phenomenon that didn't exist a few years ago" and which is growing. In one year, breaches of secularism have increased by 120 % between the 2022-2023 school year and the previous one, according to a note from state services quoted by Le Monde on August 28. "School principals were asking for support," justified the elected official.
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