Female students at state schools in France will be banned from wearing abayas, a traditional robe worn by some Muslims to cover their body.
The ban will be imposed on September 4 when the new school year begins.
Muslim women in France often have difficulty accessing public services due to strict limits on displays of religious conviction, and the decision follows intense debate over banning abayas in schools.
“When you walk into a classroom, you shouldn’t be able to identify the pupils’ religion just by looking at them,” Education Minister Gabriel Attal told France’s TF1 TV.
“I have decided that the abaya could no longer be worn in schools.”
The French government in 2004 banned “conspicuous” religious symbols including Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses from schools.
Full-face veils, known as the niqab, are banned in all public spaces including public transport and parks, streets and administrative buildings.
The bans have drawn criticism by some rights advocates, including the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
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“Secularism means the freedom to emancipate oneself through school,” Attal said, explaining his rationale on TF1 TV.
He described the abaya as “a religious gesture, aimed at testing the resistance of the republic toward the secular sanctuary that school must constitute”.
Attal, who is just 34 years old, was appointed education minister by President Emmanuel Macron over the European summer.
The looming abaya ban is his first major policy decision.
It is estimated there are 5 million Muslims in France.
