Human rights lawyer who plans to file complaint says 15-year-old was asked to leave school for wearing Japanese garment.
A schoolgirl in the French city of Lyon has reportedly been sent home for wearing a kimono, a traditional Japanese garment, as the European nation grapples with a controversial law banning the display of religious symbols in public schools.
Human rights lawyer Nabil Boudi, who plans to file a complaint over the incident, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the 15-year-old girl was told by the head teacher to leave the school because of her outfit – jeans, a t-shirt and an open kimono.
“This scenario illustrates the dangerous excesses that could legitimately be expected from the recent orders given by the education minister to his administration,” said Boudi.
“Absolutely nothing, in the mere wearing of a kimono, makes it possible to characterise an ostensible manifestation of belonging to a religion within the meaning of the law of March 15, 2004, without resorting to discriminatory prejudices.”
The student reportedly said that her clothes did not represent any religious affiliation.
Acts of discrimination committed by civil servants are punishable by criminal law, the lawyer said.
Translation: The office was seized today by a young high school student who was excluded this morning by the principal because she was wearing a kimono. A complaint for acts of discrimination on the basis of religious affiliation will be filed. Our press release.
Religious signs in state schools have been strictly banned in France since the 19th century, with laws removing any traditional Catholic influence from public education. French public schools do not permit the wearing of large crosses.
It is also forbidden for students to wear Jewish kippas and, in 2004, France also banned Muslim headscarves in schools, while in 2010 it passed a ban on full face veils in public, angering many in its five million-strong Muslim community.
In its latest move concerning how schoolchildren dress, the government announced last month a ban on the abaya – a loose-fitting, full-length robe worn by some Muslim women – saying it broke the rules on secularism in education.
The decision was welcomed by the political right but the hard left argued it represented an affront to civil liberties.
As a result of the new policy, French public schools sent dozens of girls home for refusing to remove their abayas on Monday, the first day of the school year.
Defying a ban on the garment seen as a religious symbol, nearly 300 girls showed up in the morning wearing abayas, according to Education Minister Gabriel Attal. Most agreed to change out of the robe, but 67 refused and were sent home, he said.
Kimono aren’t even the tiniest bit religious, so wtf?
Fascism in action. There’s no limit to where authoritarianism ends.
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Unless you assume that the wearer is necessarily Shintoist, which is quite the stretch
Which would be like assuming everyone wearing a top hat and waistcoat is a british protestant, in case anyone needs the perspective.
Next they’ll send girls home for wearing French maid outfits
You’re reading al Jazeera. There’s a good chance that there is a second side to this story.
I don’t trust Al Jazeera either but I can assure you it’s what’s happening right now in France (among other things) and it’s very concerning.
I’m talking specifically about this “kimono” story. Being french, I also know what’s going on there.
Al Jazeera has been almost completely fair for commentary outside of the Middle East…
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Christ, just get it over with and make them all wear a uniform already, if how they dress is so damned important.
Or just let people wear what they want ffs
Nah. Get it over with by letting them wear what they want like we do in more tolerant nations like the USA.
Yes, in more tolerant nations girls are just sent home for problems like exposed collarbones or wearing hair extensions.
I have heard many stories about people in the US about being sent home for their appearances. It does not sound like a very ‘tolerant of clothing choices’ place either, but for different reasons.
Relatively speaking, it’s way more tolerant.
That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, or that improvements cannot be made. It’s just an example of how to do better.
We even have exceptions for religious garb.
As a complete foreigner to both countries, it sort of just looks like you’re lording your Quarter Pounder with Shit over their Royale with Shit, when it’s the same Shit Sandwich.
Where are pastafarians at with their strainers?
*other than your own
That’s racist.
Pretty sure that’s the joke
they hate their own too, don’t worry
Man fuck france. This is just racist shit. Learned fucking nothing in ww2 huh?
More likely it’s misguided.
I got a lot of downvotes when I said this in the last post, but I’ll say it again: France is such a fascist place.
I am French and I can confirm it. Macron did the Palpatine move. He’s now talking about how 2 mandate is not enough…
As a Jew in Europe this shit is setting off so many alarm bells, has been for a while. But those who have the privilege to be wilfully ignorant of history will continue repeating it.
I fear Muslims in Europe are going to start to go through some of the same persecutions that plagued Jewish Europeans in the first half of the 20th century.
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You guys sound just as dumb as republicans who spend all day crying about things that don’t matter at all. She was told not to wear it, they have a dress code, she broke the rules and was sent home. Big fucking deal. Kids get sent home for wearing clothes they were told not to at school every single day in every single country. This is a nothing issue and not worth anyone’s time.
It’s a ban on religious garments, a kimono is not a religious garment. Therefore no code was broken.
Are you talking about American schools?
If you are : dresscodes in schools are not as wide spread in Europe as they are in the US.
But in any case the article cites the reasoning behind sending the student home. And it was because of supposedly religious affiliate clothing.
They had told her on multiple occasions not to wear it. This is how every school everywhere works when you deliberately do what they tell you not to repeatedly.
Do you refer to another source than the article? Because in their linked article it does not refer to several occasions.
Where in the article does it say she broke their dress code? Do you have a source?
Find me a school that doesn’t have a dress code. You’re so up in arms about the most nothing subject. She was told MULTIPLE times before not to wear it.
One of my schools didn’t have a dress code in the way you imagine it. There were rules, but only in the broadest sense (no nudity and such). A kimono would not have been considered to be in violation.
Why do you care about this so much that you would lie and make shit up?
The article doesn’t state that there were multiple warnings, and she didn’t break the dress code which is about religious dress not kimonos.
I went to a private Catholic school and we didn’t have a dress code. They’re not that common in Europe.
France didn’t care about secularism in education until recently. I wonder why that is?
Like others said, secularism is engrained in the French constitution.
However the murder of Samuel Paty, who showed the cartoons of Charly Hebdo in a class about the freedom of expression, has kind of put things on edge.
Secularism in school have been around for about 120 years. The differences are mainly that it strongly applies to students since the 90s, and that more and more things are considered as “religious signs”. And yes, it is obvious that it is, and has been, used as a political stunt. Only question is, in which way it will backfire.
It’s a distraction to avoid talking about important subject, and a communication campaign to send love signals to the far right.
This is the distraction. The fact any of you are even discussing something that happens to hundreds of kids around the world every single day as if it’s anything at all is the distraction.
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