.EVERY FEW years the French get worked up regarding a product of theological clothing that they view as improper in the classroom. This time a debate has broken out at la rentru00e9e, the beginning of the new school year, over a government selection to prohibit from state universities the abaya, an unabridged robe worn by some Muslim girls for modesty. To individuals in nations with a custom of liberal multiculturalism, the ban looks like an undesirable violation of the right to theological expression.
To protectors of a stringent model of French secularism, it is a solution important to safeguard the republic from religious obstruction. Why is actually France thus worried concerning Muslim dress in its own universities?