PARIS: French schools sent dozens of girls home for refusing to remove their abayas — an over-garment from the shoulders to the feet worn by Muslim women — on the first day of the school year, a government minister said Tuesday.
Defying a ban on the Muslim dress, nearly 300 girls showed up Monday morning wearing an abaya, Gabriel Attal told the BFM broadcaster.
Most agreed to change out of the dress, but 67 refused and were sent home, he said.
The government announced last month 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.
The move gladdened the political right but the hard-left argued it represented an affront to civil liberties.
Attal said the girls refused entry were given a letter addressed to their families saying 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.
Late Monday, President Emmanuel Macron defended the controversial measure, saying there was a “minority” in France who “hijack a religion and challenge the republic and secularism,” leading to the “worst consequences” such as the murder three years ago of teacher Samuel Paty for showing Mohamed caricatures during a civics education class.
“We cannot act as if the terrorist attack, the murder of Samuel Paty, had not happened,” he said in an interview with You Tube channel HugoDecrypte.
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, its equivalent dress for men.
The Action for the Rights of Muslims (ADM) motion is to be examined later Tuesday.
A law introduced in March 2004 banned “the wearing of signs or outfits by which students ostensibly show a religious affiliation” in schools.
This includes large Christian crosses, Jewish kippas and Islamic headscarves.
Unlike headscarves, abayas occupied a grey area and had faced no outright ban until now.
French schools refuse dozens of girls wearing Muslim dress
https://arab.news/jexs9
French schools refuse dozens of girls wearing Muslim dress
- Nearly 300 girls showed up to school wearing abaya
- Most agreed to change out of the dress, but 67 refused and were sent home
South Korea scrambles jets after Russian, Chinese planes approach
- The Russian and Chinese aircraft entered the Korea Air Defense Identification Zone around 10 a.m. local time
- Since 2019, China and Russia have regularly flown military aircraft into South Korea’s air defense zone without prior notice
SEOUL: South Korea said it had sent up fighter jets on Tuesday after seven Russian and two Chinese military aircraft entered its air defense zone.
The Russian and Chinese aircraft entered the Korea Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) around 10 a.m. local time (0100 GMT), Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
None of the planes violated South Korean airspace, they said.
Seoul said it deployed “fighter jets to take tactical measures in preparation for any contingencies” in response.
The planes flew in and out of the zone for an hour before leaving, the military said, according to Yonhap.
The planes were spotted before they entered the air defense identification zone, defined as a broader area in which countries police aircraft for security reasons but which does not constitute their airspace.
China’s defense ministry later said it had organized drills with Russia’s military according to “annual cooperation plans.”
The drills took place Tuesday above the East China Sea and western Pacific Ocean, the ministry said, calling the exercises their “10th joint strategic air patrol.”
Since 2019, China and Russia have regularly flown military aircraft into South Korea’s air defense zone without prior notice, citing joint exercises.
In November last year, Seoul scrambled jets as five Chinese and six Russian military planes flew through its air defense zone.
Similar incidents occurred in June and December 2023, and in May and November 2022.
China and Russia have expanded military and defense ties since Moscow ordered troops into Ukraine nearly four years ago.
Both are also traditional allies of North Korea, Seoul’s arch-foe.
