Over two decades after it banned the hijab in schools, the French government has announced that it will also be introducing and enforcing a ban on abayas – a loose-fitting dress most commonly worn by Muslim women and girls.

The French education minister, Gabriel Attal, said that abayas would no longer be allowed in schools when the new term starts next week because they violated the French principle of secularism (laïcité). He told French television earlier this week: “When you walk into a classroom, you shouldn’t be able to identify the pupils’ religion just by looking at them. Secularism means the freedom to emancipate oneself through school.”

Attal went on to describe the abaya as “a religious gesture, aimed at testing the resistance of the [French] republic toward the secular sanctuary that school must be”.

However, this ban on abayas is simply the latest restriction put in place that will disproportionately target Muslim women in France, effectively controlling their bodies in public spaces through their clothing.

“France’s ban on abayas in schools is the latest attempt to control Muslim women”