At that time, the wearing of the abaya was far from being at the center of the debates. In early September 2022, during a meeting, a National Education executive, alerted by several feedback from the field, warns Anne Rubinstein, special adviser to Minister Pap Ndiaye, of the sharp increase in these outfits in schools. Creteil Academy. “She looks at me, sketching a pout meaning: ‘It would surprise me'”, he confides. A year later, the subject occupies part of the back-to-school speech of the new minister, Gabriel Attal. “The abaya has no place in our schools, no more than religious symbols. To say this is to be in accordance with our most fundamental principles of secularism and neutrality”, he said on August 28. last, in the main courtyard of the Hôtel de Rochechouart, which houses the ministry.
A few days earlier, a note from the state services revealed that attacks on secularism had increased by 120% between the 2022-2023 school year and the previous one. An increase due in large part to reports of wearing signs or outfits that do not respect the law of March 2004: the wearing of abayas or qamis represented 15% to 20% of the facts reported until spring 2022 and now exceeds 40% of the monthly lifts. “We have lost a lot of time. More than a year. It will be difficult to reverse the trend, but this strong position is good news for defenders of secularism”, confides a familiar from Rue de Grenelle, on the sidelines of Gabriel Attal’s speech. For more than a year, in fact, a fierce battle has been played out in the hushed corridors of the ministry, between the close guard of Minister Pap Ndiaye and those who, from the inside, have toiled to try to obtain a strong response.
As of June 3, 2022, a confidential note, jointly drafted by the Council of Elders of Secularism and Republican Values (CSL) of the Ministry of National Education, the Values Pole of the Republic and the General Directorate of school education (Dgesco), was sent to Pap Ndiaye’s office. The text, which L’Express was able to obtain, calls for “a coherent and concerted response to the increase in reports of the wearing of signs and outfits likely to ostensibly manifest a religious affiliation in public colleges and high schools”. He points to the danger posed, according to these officials, by the increase in the number of abayas: “The conspicuous display of belonging to a community carries with it the risk of seeing pressures, which can go as far as proselytism, practice on other students. The dissemination of this message was recommended before the June exams. However, no follow-up is given.
These officials from the Ministry of National Education felt that wearing the abaya was not to be taken lightly. Already, in 2011, the reminder of the principle of secularism pronounced by the management of the Auguste-Blanqui high school, in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis), with regard to young girls wearing these long dark dresses had generated strong protests . Some community sites or forums evoked “discrimination”, “Islamophobia”. Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who would later be behind the smear campaign waged on social networks against Samuel Paty, then presented himself as the companion of the mother of one of the young girls from the Auguste-Blanqui high school, recalled to the order for wearing the abaya. “At the time, we interviewed the principal and a high school teacher, remembers Alain Seksig, now a member of the Council of Elders of Secularism, created in 2018, then in charge of the secularism mission at the High Council at the integration. We were very surprised to learn that the rectorate of Créteil had judged that this did not fall under the law of March 2004 prohibiting the wearing of ostentatious religious symbols. We thought the opposite.”
The central role played by Anne Rubinstein
A few days before the start of the 2022 school year, several school heads share their concerns about the increase in the number of students showing up in abaya at the door of colleges and high schools. They demand a clear answer from the ministry: should they, yes or no, ban it? On September 16, a note recalling the legal rules was finally sent to all rectors. This is signed by the Secretary General of the Ministry of National Education… and not by Pap Ndiaye. The minister clearly does not want to be on the front line on this issue. Pierre N’Gahane, the rector of the Dijon academy, also a former prefect, is the first to warn the heads of establishments in his district. Elsewhere, the information is slow to come down. Several authors of the note of June 3, 2022 then evoke the central role played by the special adviser Anne Rubinstein. “She was the one who dictated the political line, says one of them. It was very complicated to go against her opinion.” However, this former chief of staff of Emmanuel Macron in Bercy, considered by her authority and her relations as the “minister bis”, slows down. She considers that one should not give too much importance to the port of the abaya. Contacted by L’Express, Anne Rubinstein did not wish to speak and referred us to the current cabinet of the ministry.
Luc Pham, adviser in charge of the values of the Republic Rue de Grenelle from June 2022 to January 2023, will only meet the Council of Elders of Secularism once, when he takes office. Some members of the body were then surprised to hear the minister’s adviser reduce attacks on secularism to simple “adolescent provocations”. During his media appearances, Pap Ndiaye oscillates between the temptation to put the phenomenon into perspective, anxious to avoid adding fuel to the fire, and the need to display a certain firmness. Asked by THE Parisian in June 2022 on the obstacles to the law of March 2004, the minister relativizes the religious and identity significance of the abaya: “We also negotiate with young people, he says. Because, when you are a teenager, you like to provoke Dress does not necessarily mean a commitment to a religious process.” A few months later, on September 30, 2022, change of posture. “I am not naive that there can be slogans and proselytizing agitators who do not have good intentions for the school and for the young people”, says the host of Rue de Grenelle following a trip to a college in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.
“Closing your eyes was no longer possible”
In the meantime, a note from the interministerial committee for the prevention of delinquency and radicalization, revealed by L’Express on September 22, 2022, had mentioned an offensive led by the Islamist sphere on the Web against the school institution. The document, dated August 27, enumerated in great detail the various strategies in progress: incitement to prayer within the school, blackmailing the photo of young Muslim women unveiled, staging of conflicts between educational staff and students… and encouragement to wear clothing marking a religious affiliation at school. The note pointed out that these messages were issued in their vast majority by anonymous accounts created on the TikTok and Twitter platforms. “From there, closing your eyes was no longer possible,” says a senior official who reports pressure from the Elysée and Matignon so that Pap Ndiaye acts.
On November 9, 2022, a circular signed by the minister’s own hand and intended to “accompany the heads of establishments” finally comes out. This recalls, among other principles, the intangible one enacted by the 2004 legislation: “In addition to clothing and religious signs, it prohibits the wearing of outfits which, by intention, have a clear objective of signifying or claiming belonging or [de] to carry out religious proselytism.” Still insufficient for the management staff who reiterated their request for clarification. the cases are multiplying, it becomes frankly complicated to carry out the investigation”, then explains Franck Antraccoli, of the union of management staff ID-FO. In January 2023, Brigitte Lacoste is appointed adviser in charge of secularism and the values of the Republic , replacing Luc Pham. After the departure of the latter and Anne Rubinstein on July 5, 2023, relations between the firm and the Council of Elders of Secularism are warming up. “We were able to work together on the development of a new circular, and our remarks were taken into account by Brigitte Lacoste, with whom we had a relationship of trust”, says Alain Seksig, Secretary General of the CSL.
But their work will be interrupted by the ministerial reshuffle, which marks the departure of Pap Ndiaye, replaced by Gabriel Attal on July 20. The latter already knows the Rue de Grenelle, which he frequented when he was secretary of state to former minister Jean-Michel Blanquer. Fanny Anor, former professor of history and geography and in charge of studies at the Montaigne Institute, who was special adviser to Jean-Michel Blanquer, becomes director of the cabinet of Gabriel Attal. “She is very square on questions of secularism”, testifies a senior officer of the ministry. Another recent arrival acts a little more the change of course in progress: that of the rector of the academy of Reims, Olivier Brandouy, who should take the function of assistant director of cabinet. Isabelle de Mecquenem, secular referent of the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne and member of the Council of Elders of Secularism, salutes the quality of her speeches praising her attachment to the republican school: “The rector never hid it , on the contrary: his texts were written by his assistant director of cabinet, Benoît Drouot, a former associate professor of high school history-geography very well versed in the secular teaching of religious facts or in the fight against racism and anti-Semitism.” Benoît Drouot also writes in the right to live, journal of the Licra.
Olivier Brandouy was seated in the front row during Gabriel Attal’s back-to-school press conference on August 28. In the part of his speech devoted to the banning of abayas in schools, the minister assured that the heads of establishments would soon receive “a set of texts” aimed at dissipating the slightest “vagueness”. Are expected in particular: a memo specifying the rules in force and an update of the vade-mecum of secularism. The management staff will also have a letter signed by the Minister of National Education that they “[pourront] address the families concerned”. Finally, “human support” will also be provided in the establishments most concerned “from the start of the school year and for several days if necessary”, further assured the minister during his press conference. of his cabinet know it: the affair of the abayas is far from over.After the affirmation of its ban, some activists are already calling for a form of resistance on social networks.