The French authorities have imposed a ban on schoolgirls from wearing the abaya— the loose-fitting, full-length robe worn by some Muslim women.
More than 500 schools were monitored on the first day of school on Monday, September 4.
In August, education minister, Gabriel Attal, announced that abayas could no longer be worn in schools because they violated the French principle of secularism.
The move comes after months of controversy over the wearing of abayas in French schools, where women have long been banned from wearing the headscarf.
“Things are going well this morning. There is no incident for the moment, we will continue all day to be vigilant so that the students understand the meaning of this rule,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, as she visited a school in northern France told AFP.
But she said there was a “certain number” of schools where girls arrived wearing an abaya.
“Some young girls agreed to remove it. For the others, we will have discussions with them and use educational approaches to explain that there is a law that is being applied,” Borne added.
France, which imposed strict bans on religious symbols in public schools since 19th-century laws that removed any traditional Catholic influence from public education, has struggled to reform policies to deal with its growing Muslim minority.
French public schools do not allow the wearing of large crosses, Jewish kippahs, or Islamic headscarves.
In 2004, the country banned the headscarf in schools, and in 2010 it banned the full-face veil in public, angering many in the Muslim community of about five million.
