France Bans the Abaya in Schools— Here’s What You Can Wear Instead

From long cargo skirts to flowy dresses

Yassine Hariss

August 31, 2023

Yassine Hariss

31/08/2023

Fashion

State schools in France are set to implement a ban on girls wearing abayas, a controversial move that has reignited the ongoing, and seemingly never-ending, debate over secularism, women’s rights, and dress codes in the country. The announcement came from the country’s own minister of education, Gabriel Attal, who explained that the decision was grounded in the principle of secularism, despite the long, flowing dresses, often worn by Muslim women, not having any religious connotation at all. In fact, it’s no more than a cultural item, in the same vein as Japanese kimonos, however, French officials seem to have another opinion.

“I have decided that the abaya could no longer be worn in schools,” Attal told French television. “When you walk into a classroom, you shouldn’t be able to identify the pupils’ religion just by looking at them,” he said, adding that “secularism means the freedom to emancipate oneself through school,” describing the abaya as “a religious gesture, aimed at testing the resistance of the republic toward the secular sanctuary that school must be.”

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Une publication partagée par benan arslanoğlu (@benan.de)

Expected to take effect in upcoming weeks, as the new school year is about to commence, as you can imagine, this new legislation has brought forth a clash of perspectives, with critics viewing it as an unnecessary infringement on personal choices and religious identity, while proponents argue that it upholds France’s secularist tradition.

Instead of dwelling on the impending bill, we decided to take it upon ourselves to provide Muslim students with an alternative to deal with the unfair, biased, and triggering policy by compiling a comprehensive list of long, ankle-covering skirts, flowy long-sleeved dresses, and loose, street-sweeping trousers that adhere to religious precepts and modest dress codes, without breaking the rules.