Women in Afghanistan have been banned from one of the country’s most popular national parks because some have not been wearing the hijab there. Now, France has instituted its own ban.
It is banning girls in state schools from wearing abayas, which cover the whole body but not the head, feet, and hands, sparking a fresh row.
France’s education minister, Gabriel Attal, says the long, flowing dresses violate the French principle of secularism, or laïcité.
“I have decided that the abaya could no longer be worn in schools,” he says. “When you walk into a classroom, you shouldn’t be able to identify the pupils’ religion just by looking at them.
“Secularism means the freedom to emancipate oneself through school.”
What’s your view on the discrimination of women in Afghanistan and the French ban on the abaya?