.EVERY FEW years the French obtain worked up regarding a product of religious garments that they regard as unacceptable in the class. This time around a conflict has actually burst out at la rentru00e9e, the begin of the brand new academic year, over a government decision to prohibit from state universities the abaya, a whole bathrobe worn through some Muslim girls for virtue. To individuals in nations with a tradition of liberal multiculturalism, the restriction looks like an inappropriate infringement of the right to religious expression.
To protectors of a strict version of French secularism, it is a measure necessary to defend the commonwealth from spiritual obstruction. Why is France thus worried concerning Muslim dress in its own schools?