The Minister of the Interior and the Secretary of State for Citizenship are concerned about the multiplication of “reports of damage to secularism since the start of the school year” and invite the prefects to “support” national education .
Le Monde
The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin and the Secretary of State for Citizenship, Sonia Backès, asked the prefects on Monday, October 17, to “support the educational community in an essential reaction of great firmness in front” secularism at school which “have multiplied since the start of the school year”.
In a telegram to the prefects to which the agency France-Presse (AFP) had access, Mr. Darmanin and Ms. Backès argue that the multiplication of “reports of damage to secularism since the start of the school year, [is] Obviously the fruit of an Islamist offensive aimed at the youngest, especially through the incentive to wear traditional clothes “.
Sunday, the Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, considered that in the face of this phenomenon the law of 2004 should “be applied in a strict and firm manner”. This law prohibits in school enclosures Ostensible religious clothing or religious signs.
Thursday, the Ministry of National Education had published the figures for damage to secularism in schools, colleges and high schools for September, showing an increase in reports for the wearing of outfits like the Abayas and Qamis (Long traditional clothes carried respectively by women and by men).
“Religious clothing by destination”
In total, 313 reports were identified last month and 904 in the second quarter of 2022. This constitutes an increase compared to the average of 627 incidents identified in the first quarter of 2022. Incidents for “wearing signs and outfits” religious represent more than half of the reports in September (54 %), against 41 % in the second quarter 2022 and 22 % in the first quarter.
In this telegram to the prefects, Mr. Darmanin clarified with his hand that Ms. Backès and himself were “with the Minister of National Education very attentive to this subject”. The prefects are asked to provide “all the assistance necessary for the personnel of the educational community who would be the subject of threats, or even assaults in connection with the strict application of the principle of secularism”. And in the event that they are seized with “cases of wearing traditional clothing in school” to provide their assistance for the application of the 2004 law.
The two ministers recall that wearing clothes such as “Abayas or Qamis constitute many religious clothes by destination as soon as the purpose attached to their port is no doubt and that it constitutes an attempt bypass “of the 2004 law. From then on, add the ministers,” the heads of schools are founded to take sanctions against students behind such behaviors and to prohibit them from access to their establishment “.