LFI will challenge the ban on abayas before the Council of State

Manuel Bompard, the coordinator of La France insoumise (LFI), announced on Tuesday August 29 on France 2 his intention to seize the Council of State in the face of the decision “cruel” of the Minister of National Education to ban the wearing of the abaya at school.

“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 Manuel Bompard, deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône and leader of LFI.

According to him, this ban will “result in once again discrimination against young women and in particular young women of the Muslim faith, and I think we don’t need that in our country”.

“Agitating Fears”

“The religious authorities of the Muslim faith say that the abayas are not a religious outfit and therefore I am committed to the defense of secularism, (…) I don’t see why it should be banned.” he argued, emphasizing to wait “something different from the Minister of National Education than to stir up fears and fantasies”.

“When we start to regulate outfits, especially women’s outfits, we open a Pandora’s box from which we will not get out”, he warned.

The abaya, a long dress traditional in the Gulf countries and covering the body that the government has decided to ban at school by promising “clear rules at national level”is the new symbol of friction on the left, elected officials from the PS and PCF approving it in particular in the name of the principle of secularism, LFI denouncing an Islamophobic decision and environmentalists a “stigma”.