Muslim Women Professionals Condemns France’s Hijab and Abaya Bans
[Los Angeles, CA] (October 7, 2023) — We at Muslim Women Professionals (MWP) condemn the recently passed laws in France to ban the abaya in public schools and hijab in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
We want to express our absolute disapproval of all forms of religious discrimination and the infringement of Muslims’ rights to religious freedom. The recent legislation enforced by the French government on its citizens to ban the hijab and abaya is deplorable for its targeting of Muslim women.
The following are the laws recently passed we unequivocally condemn:
At the end of August, France’s education minister Gabriel Attal, announced that the abaya, a full-length robe worn by Muslim women, is now banned in public schools.
September 7, France’s highest court, the Council of State, upheld the abaya ban in public schools as legal, rejecting complaints of it being discriminatory toward Muslim girls.
September 24, France announced that none of its athletes will be allowed to wear the hijab, or any religious items, during the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
The 2004 legislation passed to ban hijabs in public schools.
These laws serve as strategic moves to isolate and intimidate Muslim women into relinquishing their freedom of religious expression while subjecting them to further discrimination for their religious identity.
These laws enforce a type of gendered islamophobia, where young Muslim women who want to wear the abaya and/or hijab will not be able to every day at school, and where Muslim women athletes now and in the future do not have the choice to wear hijab if they desire to.
They block access for practicing women to enter sports and to be included and accepted into everyday life in public schools.
MWP’s mission is to uplift Muslim women from all over the world with the personal and professional tools they need so they can pursue careers in whatever they choose, without ever compromising who they are, including their religious identity and expression.
These laws go against our core mission at MWP. They put practicing Muslim women in France at risk and set a dangerous precedent for other regions to follow, if they have not done so already. The detrimental effects of such legislation on Muslim women in France can be seen in the following studies cited by CAIR (The Council on American-Islamic Relations):
Discrimination: According to reports, 42% of the nearly 6 million French Muslims feel discriminated against. Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), the largest Muslim anti-racism organization in France, was dissolved by the French Council of State, effectively silencing Muslim voices.
Employment disparities: Studies show that Muslims in France are less than half as likely to receive a callback for a job compared to Christians with similar qualifications.
Public perception: A 2017 study found that only 39% of French people viewed Islam as compatible with French society.
Mosque surveillance: At least 75 mosques are being monitored by the French government, raising concerns about religious freedom and privacy.
Mosque closures: France's interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, reported that one-third of 89 inspected mosques have been closed since November 2020. This comes as part of a wider effort to combat what the French government views as extremism and separatism, including the controversial "anti-separatism law." The law allows state intervention in mosques, control over their finances, and imposes restrictions on various aspects of Muslim life, including homeschooling and doctor choice.
We cannot allow Muslim women to be barred from advancing to their fullest potential because they have to compromise who they are or how they choose to practice Islam.
The choice to wear the hijab and/or abaya should always be made available to them, and they should be able to dress how they like when going to school, entering the workforce, or playing sports.
How a Muslim woman dresses should not be the deciding factor as to whether they can pursue education or simply navigate everyday life without targeted discrimination.
France’s Education Minister Gabriel Attal declared in France that “you shouldn’t be able to identify the pupils’ religion just by looking at them. [The abaya is] a religious gesture aimed at testing the resistance of the republic toward the secular sanctuary that school must be.”
Banning these religious garments does not help achieve secularism or neutrality from religion, as Attal suggests. It subjects only Muslim women — the one particular population where wearing these garments is an essential part of observing their religion — to further discrimination and restriction of their religious freedom.
We, alongside other Muslim organizations like CAIR, are urging the U.S. State Department to condemn France’s hijab and abaya bans.
We at MWP stand with the Muslim women community in France against this legislation. We offer our support, however we can, to the Muslim women in France in their fight against these bans.
We encourage our allies to spread awareness of this issue in France and other parts of the world and urge their respective legislative bodies to condemn these types of bans.
