France to ban female students from wearing abayas in state schools

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France to ban female students from wearing abayas in state schools
bbc.com

Pupils will be banned from wearing abayas, loose-fitting full-length robes worn by some Muslim women, in France's state-run schools, the education minister has said.

The rule will be applied as soon as the new school year starts on 4 September.

France has a strict ban on religious signs in state schools and government buildings, arguing that they violate secular laws.

Wearing a headscarf has been banned since 2004 in state-run schools.

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There is no "second right" in France. The law is simple : Don't wear visible religious sign at school. There are private religious schools if you disagree with the public system.

Is it so insane to think there could be a school with both religious and areligious people at the same time? A secular school that doesn't support a religion, but allows students to express themselves how they choose? When did that become a radical idea?

It's not insane, but this separation has been done in 1905. In France the state is separated from the church (and by extension the religious). It's not radical it takes roots in the principle of equality.

Separation of church and state is always a good thing, I'm not arguing against that, but this feels like a whole different level. If anything, this is the state taking an active role in changing the rules of the church. That's not separation, that's state sponsored atheism

The public schools are the one from the state. Those one are separate from the church. But everybody can go tothe private schools those can be religious or not.

That's secularism, not atheism.

I don't see it as separation. Requiring something religious or banning something religious are both state mandates. It's moreso a strict secular enforcement.

Students should express themselves how they choose.

That's why you protect them from indoctination/religion forcing a certain outfit upon them.