"How abaya ban highlights France’s complex relationship with religion", interview de Haoues Seniguer

Présentation

The French government’s decision to ban schoolgirls from wearing the abaya is an example of the new Education Minister’s desire to please a far-right constituency and highlights the secular country’s complicated history with religion, experts say.

The exaggerated importance given to the abaya, reportedly worn by a few thousand secondary schoolgirls, finds its roots in the century-old idea that displaying signs of religiosity immediately undermines state authority, said Haoues Seniguer, a specialist on Islam at the Institute of Political Studies in Lyon.

Interview de :

• Haoues Seniguer :

  Maître de conférences HDR en science politique à Sciences Po Lyon