For them, the ban on the abaya at school “infringes the rights of the child, because it mainly targets presumed Muslim children, thus creating a risk of ethnic profiling at school”. The association Action Droits des Musulmans (ADM) on Friday seized the Council of State urgently to suspend the decision of the new Minister of Education, according to the appeal filed by the lawyers.
Three days before the start of the school year, Rights of Muslims asks the interim judge to “suspend the decision of August 27, 2023” prohibiting the wearing of this long traditional dress in public schools, colleges and high schools, according to the appeal filed by Me William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth. “This restriction of the abaya risks further stigmatizing Muslims and undermining their fundamental social, cultural and educational rights,” they explain in their appeal.
” Counter productive “
In practice, these measures “will cause school staff to unfairly target young girls based on their Arab or African ethnic origins”. Such targeting “is counterproductive and could lead to the exclusion of young girls from the education system”, according to the appeal. Another argument developed: the pupils concerned will be prohibited from wearing “allowing them to express their attachment to a culture or a geographical region”. “However, such an attitude in no way undermines secularism,” add the complainants.
The abaya is not a religious garment strictly speaking because there is no religious dress as such in Islam, so it is not an Islamic dress. This is explained in particular by the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) in a press release dating from last June.
Right to privacy
The summary denounces a ban “formulated in a vague and broad manner”. With the consequence that “the absence of indication allowing to define the outfits” incriminated could target pupils simply wishing to wear “loose clothes likely to be qualified as abayas or qamis”.
The plaintiffs therefore fear that “this ban encourages National Education staff to require students to disclose their religious beliefs” to determine whether or not their clothing is religious. This would constitute “a serious and manifestly illegal attack on the right to respect for the privacy of students”. “This unjustified interference in the exercise of Muslim worship is a serious and manifestly illegal attack on the freedom of worship”, adds the appeal.
Friday in Orange, Emmanuel Macron assured that “we must be intractable” to ban the abaya and the qamis at school, and promised that the government “will not let anything pass”.