Will the “new absurd religious war” predicted by Jean-Luc Mélenchon take place? On Monday, September 4, back to school day, 298 students showed up at the door of their high schools and colleges dressed in abayas, according to figures given by Gabriel Attal. After “a phase of explanation, of dialogue”, 67 refused to change their outfit, said the Minister of National Education. Let us take inspiration from the rebellious leader and show nuance: these good figures do not mean that the government has won its fight but they do not announce a “new religious war” either. Regardless of the facts, regardless of the caricature when it comes to seducing voters, Mélenchon must think that we have known on the subject of secularism more committed a few years ago.
But now his certainty of waging a fair fight – from a purely electoral point of view therefore – comes up against a poll. He is not the only one to rub his head, certain executives of Europe ecology-The Greens have also seen stars sinceappeared in Charlie Hebdo an Ifop opinion poll on “The position of the French on the ban on wearing the abaya and the qamis at school”.
After a week of loud cries, indignation expressed on X (ex-Twitter), blasted blog postand in uninhibited bad faith, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Sandrine Rousseau and the others had to widen their eyes when they discovered the growing gap between them and the majority of public opinion.
Not only does this long loose dress worn to hide feminine curves have, for 70% of French people, 69% of EELV sympathizers, 71% of PS sympathizers – and all the same almost half of LFI sympathizers (48% precisely) -, everything to do with religious attire. But its ban in colleges and high schools is, in addition, desired by 81% of respondents. Worse, 58% of LFI voters say they are in favor of this decision, 73% of socialist voters and even 79% of EELV voters! Hard blow for Sandrine Rousseau who denounced on August 27 on X “social control over the bodies of women and young girls, always”. The Green MP will also appreciate that among those polled, feminists and members of a feminist association vote without batting an eyelid for the banning of this item of clothing at school (81% and 63%).
Let us rejoice: the secularism forgotten by Jean-Luc Mélenchon who described on his blog the clothing of discord as “feminine dress”, “religiously unaffected here in France”, still finds fervent defenders in the electorates on the left. Considering that the majority of LFI or EELV seem to be in favor of a school which, according to the principle of equality, offers all its pupils the possibility of forging an enlightened and free mind, without them feeling constrained by a religious practice, even if desired, is what must upset the way of thinking of the leaders of these parties. What great news for the public debate.
Was it then necessary or relevant to link, as the government seemed to do, the ban on the abaya within the school institution and the promise of the imminent experimentation of the uniform? “We ban one item of clothing, we impose another”, an obviously erroneous amalgam that those who protest against the banning of the abaya at school will not fail to construct. The concomitance of the announcements suggests that the uniform could be a tool in the fight against communitarianism. The uniform seems to be a vector of social equality between students, and that’s already a lot.