.EVERY FEW years the French obtain developed concerning an item of religious clothes that they regard unsuitable in the class. This moment a dispute has broken out at la rentru00e9e, the begin of the brand-new academic year, over a government selection to disallow from state universities the abaya, a whole bathrobe put on by some Muslim ladies for virtue. To folks in countries with a heritage of liberal multiculturalism, the ban looks like an unacceptable infringement of the right to theological look.
To defenders of a meticulous variation of French secularism, it is an action needed to safeguard the state from spiritual disturbance. Why is France therefore troubled concerning Muslim dress in its own institutions?