French interior ministry to help enforce ban on Islamic dress Abaya in schools

Paris: The French Interior Ministry will help enforce a ban on the all-covering Muslim robe abaya in schools across the country, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

“Employees of the interior ministry will cooperate with teachers and the minister of national education [Gabriel Attal] to ensure that the rule adopted by the authorities in the republic is observed. There should be neutrality in schools. Everyone could have their own opinion outside it,” the interior minister said on Saturday during his visit to the French city of Lille.

Darmanin added that the government was “absolutely correct” when it decided to ban people from wearing religious clothes in schools.

Last month, Attal said the government would move ahead with the ban in time for the start of the school year on September 4.

He argued that restrictions on the wearing of abaya would uphold the right of students to emancipate themselves through school.

The ban has unleashed a heated public debate across the political and social spectrum in France about the nation’s prized secular values and the extent to which they can encroach on civil liberties. UNI/SPUTNIK XC SY SSP