.EVERY FEW years the French obtain developed concerning an item of religious apparel that they consider inappropriate in the classroom. This time around a controversy has actually broken out at la rentru00e9e, the begin of the brand-new academic year, over an authorities decision to prohibit from condition colleges the abaya, a whole robe used by some Muslim women for modesty. To folks in nations with a practice of liberal multiculturalism, the ban looks like an unacceptable violation of the right to spiritual expression.
To protectors of a rigorous version of French secularism, it is a step needed to safeguard the republic from spiritual obstruction. Why is France so concerned about Muslim wear its institutions?