.EVERY FEW years the French acquire worked up concerning a thing of religious clothing that they regard improper in the classroom. This moment a dispute has burst out at la rentru00e9e, the start of the new school year, over an authorities decision to disallow coming from condition institutions the abaya, an uncut bathrobe worn through some Muslim women for discreetness. To people in nations with a practice of liberal multiculturalism, the restriction seems like an unwanted violation of the right to spiritual expression.
To protectors of a strict variation of French secularism, it is actually a solution essential to shield the state from religious obstruction. Why is actually France therefore worried regarding Muslim dress in its universities?