Religious symbols are already banned in French schools, but the abaya — a loosefitting robe worn by some Muslim women — was in a gray area. Critics called the measure discriminatory.
“The abaya has no place in schools,” Gabriel Attal, the education minister, said on Monday. Mr. Attal said attacks on the principle of laïcité — France’s version of secularism, which guarantees freedom of conscience but also the neutrality of the state and of some public spaces — had “increased considerably” in French schools.
