LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- French schools sends dozens of Muslim girls home on the first day of the school year, for refusing to remove their abayas, after ban on the Islamic dress, according to a Government minister.
About 300 girls were said to have showed up on Monday morning, Defying a ban on the Muslim dress, education secretary, Gabriel Attal told the BFM broadcaster.
Most agreed to change out of the dress, but 67 refused and were sent home, he added.
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Recall that the Government of France, last month, announced it was banning the abaya in schools, saying it broke the rules on secularism in education that have already seen Muslim headscarves banned on the grounds they constitute a display of religious affiliation.
Announcing the ban last month, Attal said, “When you walk into a classroom, you shouldn’t be able to identify the pupils’ religion just by looking at them. I have decided that the abaya can no longer be worn in schools.”
In his statement earlier today, Attal said the girls refused entry were given a letter addressed to their families stating that “Secularism is not a constraint, it is a liberty.”
If they showed up at school again wearing the dress there would be a “new dialogue,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, an association representing Muslims has filed a motion with the State Council, France’s highest court for complaints against State authorities, for an injunction against the ban on the abaya and the qamis, equivalent dress for men.
The Action for the Rights of Muslims (ADM) motion is to be examined later on Tuesday, 5 September.