Several academies are affected to varying degrees. The phenomenon has expanded recently, suggesting that it is, if not a concerted effort, at least a pronounced proselytism. “Challenges” have even appeared on social networks asking young people to challenge their school.
According to information from L’Opinion, the territorial intelligence service has alerted the Ministry of the Interior, just as the rectorates have done for education. The file will be quickly presented to Pap Ndiaye and could serve as a test for the new minister’s firmness on violations of secularism. In Grenoble, two young girls were called to order in mid-May. The school administration of the Lycée Mounier then sent an email, quoted by the newspaper Dauphiné libéré, to the parents of the students reminding them that “non-conformist clothing (high heels, beachwear as well as long tunics considered as an ostentatious religious sign) will not be accepted”. The next day, more headscarves were worn at the entrance and a petition “against discrimination against schoolgirls” was posted on the website change.org.
These incidents occurred in the week that Eric Piolle’s majority (EELV) voted to allow burkinis in municipal swimming pools. In the department of Aisne, families were surprised to see boys in Kami outfits on the day of the Eid festival; others in the department of Oise complained of an “epidemic” of headscarf wearing. The regions of Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, the suburbs of the Paris region like Paris in the urban area are also affected. Sometimes the schoolgirls take off their hooded veils at the entrance to pull them down again in the schoolyard or in the corridors, while the supervisors struggle to enforce compliance with the rules. When some schoolgirls are asked to go home, it is sometimes a group of 10 or 15 that shows up the next day.
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The case is being followed with particular attention because in 2011, an ” affair of the floor-length dresses ” had provoked a polemic in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis). Some schoolgirls in dark dresses had found copycats at the Lycée Auguste-Blanqui, who were immediately supported by two fundamentalist groups: Forsane Alizza (“Horsemen of Pride”) and the Collectif cheikh Yassine (CCY), which have since been administratively dissolved. The latter had been founded in 2004 by Abdelhakim Sefrioui. The man was later identified by the director of the Lycée Blanqui as ” the uncle ” who had come to vehemently defend the students concerned. In 2019, Abdelhakim Sefrioui caused a scandal with the school management after a lesson on secularism and the presentation of caricatures of Mohammed in a collège in the Yvelines department. The teacher in question was Samuel Paty. The Islamist suspected of being involved in the deadly spiral that led to the attack is now in prison, charged with accessory to murder.
[…] L’Opinion