LFI wants to oppose the media measure exposed Sunday by Gabriel Attal on secularism at school. The coordinator of La France insoumise Manuel Bompard thus announced on Tuesday his intention to seize the Council of State to attack the “cruel” decision of the Minister of National Education to ban the wearing of the abaya in schools.
“I will propose to our parliamentary group to attack the Council of State this regulation because I think that it will be contrary to the Constitution, that in my opinion it is dangerous, it is cruel”, declared on France 2 the deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône.
A prohibition synonymous with “discrimination”
According to him, this ban will “result once again in discrimination against young women and in particular young women of the Muslim faith and I think that we do not need that in our country”. “When you start regulating outfits, especially women’s outfits, you’re opening a Pandora’s box that you can’t get out of,” he warned.
“The religious authorities of the Muslim faith say that the abayas are not a religious outfit and therefore I am attached to the defense of secularism, (…) I do not see why it should be banned”, argued Manuel Bompard , emphasizing expecting “something else from the Minister of National Education than going to agitate fears and fantasies”.
The abaya, a long traditional dress covering the body, which the government has decided to ban at school by promising “clear rules at the national level”, is the new symbol of friction on the left, of the elected officials of the PS and the PCF approving it in particular in the name of the principle of secularism, LFI denouncing an Islamophobic decision and environmentalists a “stigma”.