the Council of State rejects a second appeal against the ban

No, for the second time. In a decision rendered Monday, September 25, the Council of State rejected the “referred suspension” filed by three associations against the circular from the Minister of Education prohibiting the wearing of the abaya and the qamis. This is the second time he has spoken out urgently on the subject.

In this second decision, the Council of State notes that “the wearing of the abaya and the qamis within schools, which gave rise to a sharply increasing number of reports during the 2022-2023 school year, is part of a logic of religious affirmation, as this emerges in particular from the remarks made during the dialogues engaged with the students”.

However, recalls the Council of State, “the law prohibits, within public educational establishments, the wearing by students of signs or outfits conspicuously demonstrating, either by themselves or because of the behavior of the student, affiliation to a religion” .

A second appeal rejected

The Council of State was contacted by three associations, La Voix lycéenne, Le fist leva and the Sud-Éducation union, which contested the instructions given by the Ministry of Education on the wearing of clothing such as the abaya. Faced with their arguments, the Council of State took up the reasoning that it had already developed in a previous decision, on September 7, rejecting a first appeal against the ministry’s decision.

Just as he did on September 7, the judge in summary proceedings therefore considers that the ministry did not “inaccurately qualified the wearing of the abaya or qamis in educational establishments” like a “conspicuous manifestation of religious affiliation”. Likewise, the Council of State dismisses the complaint raised by the associations, which denounced the fact that the circular described “the clothing in question is too imprecise”.

The legal debate is not over, however, warns the Council of State, which recalls that it will then have to judge the case “on the merits”: “After this provisional decision rendered urgently, the Council of State will render a final decision later, following an in-depth investigation. »