2023-09-20 13:27:02
AA/Nice/Feïza Ben Mohamed
Since the announcement, on the evening of August 27, of the ban on the wearing of the abaya in schools, by the French Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, tensions around this highly flammable subject have been at their peak. .
Between a right openly hostile to this loose dress and to all manifestations of visibility of Muslim communities, and a left which continues to tear itself apart on the issue, the Muslims of France find themselves trapped, at the heart of debates which go beyond them.
– The union of the left undermined
As soon as this controversial ban was announced, LFI (La France insoumise) was one of the first political parties to rebel, even threatening to refer the matter to the Council of State and considering that such a measure was not constitutional. .
“Gabriel Attal’s proposal is unconstitutional. Contrary to the founding principles of secularism. Symptomatic of the obsessive rejection of Muslims. Barely back, the macronie is already trying to take the RN from the right,” tweeted to this effect the MP for Seine-Saint-Denis, Clémentine Autain.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for his part, once more denounced Sunday on the air of BFMTV “the virulent Islamophobia which reigns in (the) country”, which he describes as “an offense” and which he assures that he has not became aware of it a few years ago.
“Someone in a ministry decided that the abaya was a religious outfit” while “the Muslim clerics” refuted this assertion, also underlined the leader of LFI for whom the authorities “do not have to to decide what is in religion.”
But LFI, which represents an important component of NUPES (new ecological and united popular union), finds itself in opposition with several figures and parties of this union.
This is evidenced by the recent controversy provoked by the former socialist minister Ségolène Royal, in reaction to a report from Anadolu which revealed the treatment reserved for a young 15-year-old high school student, ousted from her Lyon establishment for having worn a kimono on her graduation day. back to school.
” That’s enough . We don’t come to school dressed up, in a kimono or pajamas. Respect school leaders, teachers who have no time to waste on these whims. Work and succeed in the Republic school which welcomes you free of charge. Prepare your future profession and build your life that I wish you happy, with a sense of responsibility. Be careful because you risk being convicted of abusive recourse. After disrupting the start of the school year for other students, avoid cluttering the courts,” commented the new columnist for the C8 channel, causing a real outcry.
That’s enough . We don’t come to school dressed up, in a kimono or pajamas. Respect school leaders, teachers who have no time to waste on these whims. Work and succeed in the Republic school which welcomes you free of charge. Prepare your…
— Ségolène Royal (@RoyalSegolene) September 11, 2023
And for good reason, the position of the one who faced Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round of the 2007 presidential election was somewhat surprising since she announced a few days earlier that she wanted to lead the NUPES list for the next European elections.
His virulent comment on the Anadolu report in fact sparked several thousand comments in which Internet users pointed out in particular “Islamophobic remarks”, and the “paternalistic tone of the socialist left”, to the point that the person concerned had to publish an explanatory message to try to attenuate the bad buzz caused by her controversial position.
But in reality, Ségolène Royal is not the only one, on the left and on the socialist side, to oppose body and soul to the wearing of the abaya.
The first secretary of the PS (Socialist Party) Olivier Faure also indicated that he had “no problem with the ban on the abaya” while he assured, last January, that it was not ” of religious clothing.
The party’s spokesperson, Jérôme Guedj also came to support this position, speaking out in favor of this ban.
“Our compass is the ban on conspicuous signs at school. From the moment the abaya or the qamis are worn in an ostentatious dimension, then they must be prohibited as the 2004 law allows, without major difficulties,” he declared to this effect, in a publication on X (formerly Twitter).
Also added to the left-wing personalities in favor of banning the abaya is Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the PCF (French Communist Party), who told Sud Radio that he “is in favor » to this measure which sets “clear instructions” which he “approves”.
– Proceedings initiated before the courts
In fact, and as evidenced by numerous testimonies collected by Anadolu, a large part of the exclusions of students on the basis of allegedly wearing an abaya, in reality concern the wearing of loose clothing.
In Hérault (South-East), Lyon (East), or even in the Paris region, several students have initiated criminal or administrative proceedings for acts they describe as “religious discrimination”, following having been ordered to leave their establishments for a long shirt, a dress, or a kimono.
In an interview with Anadolu, the LFI deputy, Carlos Martens Bilongo, deplores the establishment of a “clothing police” which attacks an outfit “which is not even religious” and which “stigmatizes part of the French population, namely the Muslims”.
“How can you tell the difference between a gothic dress or a long dress from Gucci or an hm dress or a cultural abaya other than judging by the person who wears this garment”, asks the elected official who predicts that he “does not will not have a text in Parliament” since this ban is “unconstitutional”.
Maître Nabil Boudi, lawyer at the Paris bar, has been contacted by many families, helpless in the face of the evictions of their children, and is leading the legal fight.
“The humiliation must stop and a judicial authority must urgently take up this matter since the order given by the Minister of National Education has the effect of creating religious discrimination once morest young students,” believes the council.
Alongside the individual procedures, a first appeal for interim relief, filed by the ADM association (Action Rights of Muslims), was rejected at the beginning of September by the Council of State which considered that the ban on the abaya “does not does not constitute a serious and manifestly illegal attack on a fundamental freedom.
The highest administrative court in the country has in fact established that the wearing of the abaya is done “in a logic of religious affirmation, as is clear in particular from the comments made during the dialogues engaged with the students”.
Several unions including “Sud Education Paris”, “La Voix High School” and “Le Fist Raised High School” have also contacted the Council of State to have the ban issued by the Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, suspended.
“Among the new means raised, there is that of the incompetence of the Minister of Education to decree what is religious by nature, in the absence of consensus or majority opinion of the Muslim community”, detailed Maître Lucie Simon on social networks, specifying also that “the unions have highlighted that the abaya cannot be considered as religious clothing in itself, its ban will necessarily be done with regard to the supposed religion or origin of the student, thus creating discrimination.”
The hearing, which was held on Tuesday, should result in a deliberation in the coming days but any decision that might be taken will only be provisional since a summary judgment leads by definition to a decision taken urgently and in no way case to a position on the merits.
Only part of the dispatches, which the Anadolu Agency broadcasts to its subscribers via the Internal Broadcasting System (HAS), is broadcast on the AA website, in summary form. Please contact us to subscribe.
1695226099
#abaya #discord #fractures #left
