La France insoumise proposes repealing school abaya ban

The political party La France insoumise (LFI) has announced its intention to repeal the ban on the abaya and qamis in schools if Jean-Luc Mélenchon wins the 2027 presidential election. Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI parliamentary group, described the current ban as ‘absurd,’ arguing that it leads to arbitrary stigmatization and racial profiling of Muslim students.

The announcement has drawn sharp criticism from political opponents. Marine Le Pen of the Rassemblement National accused Mélenchon and LFI of being ‘subcontractors of Islamist ideology.’ Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal defended the measure he originally implemented, stating that its application has been successful and noting that ‘there were no riots.’ Attal further suggested that LFI’s objective is not merely to lift the abaya ban but to repeal the 2004 law regarding religious symbols in schools.