LFI Says It Would Repeal School Abaya Ban if Elected

Overview

• La France insoumise announced on Monday that it would seek to lift the explicit ban on the abaya introduced in 2023 if the party wins the 2027 presidential election.
• Mathilde Panot framed the measure as unjust and discriminatory and said enforcing dress rules is not the role of school staff, while Jean‑Luc Mélenchon has cited Muslim scholars who say the abaya is not an Islamist garment.
• The announcement triggered immediate denunciations from across the political spectrum, with Marine Le Pen accusing Mélenchon of serving an Islamist agenda and former education minister Gabriel Attal saying LFI would effectively roll back the 2004 law on religious signs.
• If LFI tried to carry out the pledge it would require political and legal steps because the 2004 law remains the baseline for public schools and changes would likely need parliamentary action or new regulations.
• Official figures cited in coverage show relatively few abaya cases in schools—about 1,984 reports and 67 refusals after the 2023 ban—highlighting that the issue is small in scale but large as a symbolic campaign issue that could reshape debate over how laïcité is applied.