France’s Abaya Ban Survives Legal Challenges, For Now
France’s highest administrative court has rejected two legal challenges aimed at overturning a ban on abayas — full-length robes worn by some Muslim women and girls — in public schools.
France’s Abaya Ban Survives Legal Challenges, For Now
Soeren Kern | Focus on Western Islamism | October 25, 2023
France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State (Conseil d’État), has rejected two legal challenges aimed at overturning a ban on abayas — full-length robes worn by some Muslim women and girls — in public schools.
The court’s upholding of the abaya ban represents a setback, albeit a temporary one, for Islamist groups that have been encouraging Muslims to don Islamic clothing in public spaces to test the limits of France’s principle of state secularism, known as laïcité.
Observers warn that the fight against Islamist encroachment in France is far from over. French sociologist Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, an expert in the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities in Europe, told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI) that Islamists will continue to search for ways to reverse the ban. “It is clear that the Muslim Brothers will never give up this fight because the sexual division of labor (division sexuelle du travail) that Islamic clothing establishes is a pillar of the Islamic society they want to impose,” she said.
