this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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Pupils will be banned from wearing abayas, loose-fitting full-length robes worn by some Muslim women, in France's state-run schools, the education minister has said.

The rule will be applied as soon as the new school year starts on 4 September.

France has a strict ban on religious signs in state schools and government buildings, arguing that they violate secular laws.

Wearing a headscarf has been banned since 2004 in state-run schools.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Wow. As a religious minority it's incredibly depressing to see how many people on here support this violation of religious liberty.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I agree with you. It's one thing to say the school can't promote a religious creed to the pupils, it is another to limit self-expression of dress when it doesn't impact other students

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

French secularism is way different than what americans have, it is pretty unique. Remember it

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] SuddenDownpour 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's been part of France's political culture that religious signification has no place in public institutions. Given that Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Britain offer ways to religious groups to punish others through the legal system for not accepting their criteria regarding what constitutes legitimate criticism [*], but France doesn't, I'd argue that France is doing something right.

In 2018, a youth in Spain was condemned to pay 480€ for publishing an edited photograph of a Christ image with his own face.

This event emboldened fanatic religious organizations, which sought charges against an actor for saying "I shit on God and Virgin Mary!" in a restaurant. Fortunately he wasn't declared guilty, but he suffered a judicial process of 2 years. This doesn't mean they didn't achieve their goal: they sent everyone the message that you should think twice the next time you consider you have freedom of expression.

If you let religious people think their beliefs must be protected from any criticism, many of them will start to see their privilege as the norm, and eventually encroach the freedoms of everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

France may be good for not respecting a religion and disallowing abuse of religious systems that would attack the freedom of non-religious/minority-religious citizens, but are going to the opposite side of this problem. Abayas don't hurt anyone and, from what I can tell/correct me if wrong, are used as a religious observation. France is going out of their way to impose restrictions on elements that are generally harmless that these people may see as a religious necessity, attacking the freedom of religious citizens. There has to be a balance and they're off on the other arc of the pendulum swing here.

[–] SuddenDownpour 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Abayas don’t hurt anyone

Enforcing Muslim girls and women to hide their hair does definitely hurt someone: those who want to leave religion. It is a very common problem for ex-Muslim women and teenagers to suffer harassment both at home and elsewhere from bigoted Muslims who think they do not have the right to apostate. As soon as you stop complying with an enforced form of clothing, you're signalling those people that you're a sinner.

old.reddit.com/r/exmuslim/comments/9cnyvl/help_muslim_security_guard_at_work_told_my/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It's obvious that the "we should give women from oppressive backgrounds the choice to volunteer to oppress themselves in public schools" folks didn't grow up in an oppressive religion. It is actually quite easier to understand if one thinks of ALL religions as cults for a moment, to remove the veneer of the sacred.

What technically could be called a "choice" is often far from it. On the mild side, maybe your momma or daddy isn't "forcing" you to wear an abaya/floor length jean dress/bonnet/whatever, but if you choose NOT to wear it, you face disapproval and pushback from co-religionists. On the harsh side, choosing not to wear whatever garb can lead you to being harshly punished, ostracized, even beaten.

Giving the kids half a chance to form a self-concept that is larger than their family's own religiocultural worldview is a kind of freedom, and yes, it diverges greatly from the US view of "religious freedom," which is includes the freedom to try and indoctrinate one's kids to ensure that there will be a future generation of primitive baptists/mainstream evangelicals/US anglicans/muslims/etc. that continue to teach that women are subserviant to men.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So surely forcing them to take it off while at school is exacerbating that problem. They either comply with the state and be seen as a sinner by their religion, or stick to their religious belief (forced or not) and are at odds with the state.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The point is that by banning it, they remove agency from the kid. So the parents will be WAY less likely to take out their displeasure of their kid not wearing religiocultural garb on the kid, since the kid has no choice. Far better than the beatings and other less physical abuse that will rain down on a substantial minority of kids if they voluntarily opted out of the garb.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I get the idea that it's freeing children from having to follow their parental oppression, but it would be nice to see some honest statistics on how many kids this actually is.

I would be inclined to think the more rabid fundamentalist types would simply seek a move to a school which allows their kid to wear it. Thereby not really reducing fundamentalism as is the supposed goal, instead segregating and entrenching it.

And it's not even a niqab of hijab we are talking about here, its just a type of traditional dress.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Too bad the thing you want hard data on is virtually impossible to accurately gather with any reliability. What I do know is that as a former fundamentalist evangelical xtian examining my own former in-group, there was a ton of active coordination to poison the well of our young minds against "the world," which meant science, evolution, sex, role of women, higher education, and anyone who was not our flavor of christian. Most kids willfully mimicked their parents opinions, like I did. And of my then in-group, it seemed that for every handful of families, half of them had insane parents (domineering fathers and submissive mothers) that were very happy that the Bible gave a divine mandate/suggestion to beat their children to enforce compliance with the dictates of their faith.

[–] Leer10 -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah honestly. As much as we've struggled with developing and even enforcing it today, I think America has a good balance between freedom to practice and freedom from state sponsored religion

[–] SuddenDownpour 4 points 1 year ago

Probably not the best moment in that country's history to make that claim

https://web.archive.org/web/20230719103441/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/08/opinion/supreme-court-religion.html

This term, the Supreme Court decided two cases involving religion: Groff v. DeJoy was a relatively low-profile case about religious accommodations at work; 303 Creative v. Elenis was a blockbuster case about the clash between religious exercise and principles of equal treatment. (The legal question was technically about speech, but religion was at the core of the dispute.)

In both cases, plaintiffs asserted religiously grounded objections to complying with longstanding and well-settled laws or rules that would otherwise apply to them. And in both, the court handed the plaintiff a resounding victory.

These cases are the latest examples of a striking long-term trend: Especially since Amy Coney Barrett became a justice in 2020, the court has taken a sledgehammer to a set of practices and compromises that have been carefully forged over decades to balance religious freedom with other important — and sometimes countervailing — principles.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Religion has no place in the modern world.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

And the real reason is unmasked. This isn’t “freedom,” this is pushing atheism. There’s a reason the US Supreme Court has struck down similar policies for nearly a century, because it privileges atheism over any religion.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The US Supreme Court has struck down similar policies because US population are religious zealots.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You say that as if atheism is just another religion, which is missing the point. It's not an unreasonable bias if the government agrees with me that 2+2=4 and that those trying to convince you 2+2=3 are doing you intellectual harm. I know religious people love the "but atheism is just another kind of religion!" adage, but it doesn't hold water. Nobody is being denied human rights in the name of just atheism, nobody is being oppressed by just atheism.

Remember when we were kids and we were told not to judge people by how they look or other factors they can't control, but rather to judge them by the things they say, do, and think? Yeah somewhere religious people started this lie that religion is some intrinsic part of being, like sexuality/sexual identity, but this isn't the case. Religion is a choice. Religion is a belief. Exactly the kind of thing you should judge people for, same as any of their other beliefs or opinions.

The idea that a government shouldn't endorse atheism, or at least legislate from an atheistic point of view, is insane to me, tbh.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Religion isn't a choice - you can't choose to believe something. I used to be obsessed with my religion and my relationship to god. Then I had a nervous breakdown, saw a shrink, and was diagnosed with depression and ADHD. Two weeks into taking wellbutrin, ALL CARES about my immortal soul and god and whatever just turned off entirely, like a giant breaker being thrown. It was amazing, and made me realize that people's brain chemistry has as much to do with them being religious as cultural factors.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't agree with your interpretation of constitutes an intrinsic quality. I do agree elements within organized religion exist to prey on various vulnerabilities, including those related to brain chemistry, but I don't think those pressures or vulnerabilities absolve you the responsibility of thoughtfulness and choice. I have suffered from a genuine mental illness my whole life, and that fact does contribute to my choices and and may explain some of my behavior, but it never absolves me or excuses my behavior. Religion may arguably be a difficult or loaded choice, but it is absolutely a choice. A person isn't a Baptist in the way that they might be inherently and intrinsically gay; a person chooses to be Baptist, even if that choice is one of passive cultural acceptance.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I honestly don't understand the contradicting argument of "there should be no religious symbol in a state school, if you want that go to a religious school" and "no religious symbols allowed will set them free".

Surely if you are funneling all of these kids into religious schools and away from the state system, you're going to entrench them in that religion further, not "set them free". It just serves to divide kids even more than if you allowed them all the freedom to mingle in the same school with all their religious garb.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah its why I'm downvoting people, they seem to think Christianity is the only religon in existence and that anyone who follows religon ends up like those domestic terrorists in america

It reminds me of athiest reddit

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The same law applies to Christians, too. For instance, you also wouldn't be allowed to wear a cross at school.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm not against freedom of expression as long as it doesn't bring harm to anyone

Wearing symbols of a religon or faith someone subscribes to doesn't harm anyone just like dressing with a person's own preference of clothing does not harm anyone

People should be free to express themselves and not be forced to hide parts of themselves away in public because someone in government thinks dressing a certain way or wearing a symbol of faith or religon inherently leads to something bad happening for example americas domestic terrorists

And just to he clear I'm not supporting right wing bigotry with my comment, I will never be tolerant of bigotry and intolerance

And I've seen a lot of people in this posts comment section being in support of this being rude & inflammatory

YOU NEVER TAKE AWAY THE RIGHTS / EQUALITY OF PEOPLE WITH GOOD INTENTIONS IN MIND

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The people here do not represent what the world outside looks like and anonymity emboldens extreme views.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In a way I get it, your way of life is being discriminated against. But with thousands of years of history and present day to go off of, I still feel it's a good thing.

I kinda compare it to smoking cigarettes. There are a ton of people who do it, but it's so obviously unhealthy. I won't go on with the analogy, but you can get pretty grim with it.

You can have a fulfilling and culture filled life without blind hope for a greater power and possibly being negatively influenced by that belief; either through authority figures in your church or you're own interpretations of religious teachings.

Another thing I saw mentioned was that it's a state run school. Separation of church and state is something I vehemently agree with. So while it might suck for you, your grandchildren will be better off because they're not losing anything.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Protecting the society's Overton window concerning women from being shifted toward any religious group's preferred direction (let alone a minority group that has a terrible present tract record insofar as female equality is concerned) is a real hard thing to get right. Quite honestly, having grown up as a fundamentalist evangelical Christian and having spent years deprogramming myself from my childhood indoctrination, I would have zero issue seeing the same laws equally enforced against public expressions of religion in this country as well. Any space children have from their family to form their own opinions, without being forced to "other" themselves through religiocultural garb, is good space.