イスラム教徒の「アバヤ」、フランスの校内で着用禁止へ　教育相

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】フランスのガブリエル・アタル国民教育相は２７日、イスラム教徒の一部の女性が着用する、全身を覆うゆったりとした服「アバヤ」について、教育現場における厳格な世俗主義を定めた法律に違反するとして、今後学校での着用が禁止されると発表した。（写真はフランス・パリのソルボンヌ大学で演説するガブリエル・アタル国民教育相）
　アタル氏は民放ＴＦ１に対し、来月４日に新学年を迎えるのに先立ち「国レベルの明確なルール」を各学校長に通知すると述べた。
　フランスでは２００４年３月に施行された法律で、校内で「児童・生徒が自身の宗教を表立って示すシンボルや衣服の着用」が禁じられた。キリスト教の大きな十字架やユダヤ教徒のキッパ（帽子）、イスラム教のヘッドスカーフなどが対象となった。
　だがアバヤはヘッドスカーフとは異なり、グレーゾーンにあると受け止められ、これまで厳しい禁止措置は講じられてこなかった。
　しかしこのところ、校内でのアバヤ着用者が増えて教師と保護者間の緊張が強まっていることが報じられ、議論が再燃。右派や極右は禁止を支持し、左派は市民の自由の侵害だと主張している。
　アタル氏は「世俗主義は、学校で自分を解放する自由があることを意味する」と述べるとともに、「教室に入った際に、その児童・生徒を見ただけで宗教が判別可能であるべきではない」との考えを示した。
　これに対し左派野党「不屈のフランス」のクレマンティーヌ・オタン氏は、アタル氏の発表は「違憲」で、フランスの世俗主義的な価値観の基礎となる原則に反しており、政府の「イスラム教徒の強迫的な拒絶」の表れだと指摘した。
　イスラム教系全国組織ＣＦＣＭはかねて、衣服だけでは「信仰のシンボル」にならないと訴えていた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/08/29-16:40）

French authorities are to ban the wearing in school of abaya dresses worn by some Muslim women, the education minister said Sunday, arguing the garment violated France's strict secular laws in education.
It will no longer be possible to wear an abaya at school, Education Minister Gabriel Attal told TF1 television, saying he would give clear rules at the national level to school heads ahead of the return to classes nationwide from September 4.
The move comes after months of debate over the wearing of abayas in French schools, where women have long been banned from wearing the Islamic headscarf.
The right and far-right had pushed for the ban, which the left argued would encroach on civil liberties.
There have been reports of abayas being increasingly worn in schools and tensions within school over the issue between teachers and parents.
Secularism means the freedom to emancipate oneself through school, Attal said, describing the abaya as a religious gesture, aimed at testing the resistance of the republic toward the secular sanctuary that school must constitute.
You enter a classroom, you must not be able to identify the religion of the students by looking at them, he said.
A law of March 2004 banned the wearing of signs or outfits by which students ostensibly show a religious affiliation in schools.
This includes large crosses, Jewish kippas and Islamic headscarves.
Unlike headscarves, abayas -- a long, baggy garment worn to comply with Islamic beliefs on modest dress -- occupied a grey area and had faced no outright ban until now.
But the education ministry had already issued a circular on the issue in November last year.
It described the abaya as one of a group of items of clothing whose wearing could be banned if they were worn in a manner as to openly display a religious affiliation. The circular put bandanas and long skirts in the same category.
- Mixed reaction -
Approached by head teachers' unions about the issue, Attal's predecessor as education minister Pap Ndiaye replied that he did not want to publish endless catalogues to specify the lengths of dresses.
At least one union leader, Bruno Bobkiewicz, welcomed Attal's announcement Sunday.
The instructions were not clear, now they are and we welcome it, said Bobkiewicz, general secretary of the NPDEN-UNSA, which represents head teachers.
Eric Ciotto, head of the opposition right-wing Republicans party, also welcomed the news.
We called for the ban on abayas in our schools several times, he said.
But Clementine Autain of the left-wing opposition France Unbowed party denounced what she described as the policing of clothing.
Attal's announcement was unconstitutional and against the founding principles of France's secular values, she argued -- and symptomatic of the government's obsessive rejection of Muslims.
Barely back from the summer break, she said, President Emmanuel Macron's administration was already trying to compete with Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally.
The debate has intensified since a radicalised Chechen refugee beheaded teacher Samuel Paty, who had shown students caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, near his school in a Paris suburb in 2020.
The CFCM, a national body encompassing many Muslim associations, has said items of clothing alone are not a religious sign.
The announcement is the first major move by Attal, 34, since he was promoted this summer to handle the hugely contentious education portfolio.
Along with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, 40, he is seen as a rising star who could potentially play an important role after Macron steps down in 2027.