Abaya and qamis, two long and loose garments worn by some Muslim women and men, respectively, have been outlawed in public schools, and teachers and students at a French high school have gone on strike in opposition to this decision made by the government.
The Maurice Utrillo high school protest group in Stains, Seine-Saint-Denis, issued a statement calling for a strike that began on Wednesday, saying, “we want to distance ourselves from the government’s Islamophobic policy“.
“Students must be welcomed at the Maurice Utrillo high school and we do not have to police the clothing. We refuse to stigmatize students who wear an abaya or a qamis.”
The school’s decision comes after the government forbade the two outfits for students, claiming that they violated French laws on secularism in education.
“For months and months, we had no teachers as there were no replacements, but they found time for this?” one of the students who joined the strike in front of the Utrillo school told the media.
Parents joined the demonstration, where the school staff lamented budget problems and criticized a “drastic drop” in the resources needed to teach effectively, including reductions in staff and teaching hours.
“We are not waiting for ministries who tell us how to dress, we are waiting for ministries who give us the tools to provide our children some serenity … and that gives our teachers the best tools,” a student’s mother told local media.
In France, which has the largest Muslim minority in all of Europe, the display of religious symbols has long been a topic of controversy .
On their first day of school on Monday, dozens of girls were sent home for refusing to take off their abayas.
Since the 19th century, religious symbols have been strictly prohibited in public schools, and laws have eliminated any traditional Catholic influence from the curriculum. It is forbidden to wear a large cross to public schools in France.
The wearing of Jewish kippas by students is also forbidden. In addition, France outlawed Muslim headscarves in schools in 2004 and passed a law banning full face veils in public settings in 2010, which infuriated many members of the country’s five million-strong Muslim population.
Source-Aljazeera
