The Council of State validates a second time the ban on wearing the abaya at school decided by the Ministry of National Education at the end of August. Seized by two ociations and a union (La Voix lycéenne, le Poing Levé and Sud Éducation) “the summary judge of the Council of State rejects the summary suspension against the ban on the wearing of the abaya or the qamis in the enclosure of public schools, colleges and high schools”, indicates the Council of State in a press release published this Monday.
“In the state of the investigation, the judge considers that there is no serious doubt about the legality of the ban decided by the Minister of National Education and Youth on August 31, 2023” , continues the high administrative court. After this provisional decision, the Council of State will render “a final decision later”.
This is the second summary judgment that he has rejected in this sense. At the beginning of September, a summary liberty order was filed on behalf of the ociation Action Droits des Musulmans (ADM), which called for the suspension of this decision in the name of a risk of infringement of rights. The state Council had already agreed with Gabriel Attal : “The ban on these clothes does not constitute a serious and manifestly illegal attack on a fundamental freedom,” he indicated in a press release.
The abaya “is part of a logic of religious affirmation”
“The judge of the summary proceedings notes, in view of the elements produced during the investigation, that the wearing of the abaya and the qamis within educational establishments, which gave rise to a sharply increasing number of reports during the school year 2022-2023, is part of a logic of religious affirmation, as emerges in particular from the comments made during the dialogues engaged with the students,” wrote the Council of State in its press release on Monday to justify its decision.
Sud Éducation, as well as the ociations La Voix lycéenne and Le Poing leva, contested the legality of the ban. During the hearing on September 19, Judge Benoît Bohnert questioned at length the urgency of the request. The applicants’ lawyer, Lucie Simon, regretted a circular that was “not precise enough” and carried “discrimination”. Her colleague Clara Gandin had also pointed out a risk of “discrimination” by ensuring that “we are removing the right only from students perceived as Muslim to wear long and loose outfits”.