Pupils will be banned from wearing abayas, loose-fitting full-length robes worn by some Muslim women, in France’s state-run schools, the education minister has said.
The rule will be applied as soon as the new school year starts on 4 September.
France has a strict ban on religious signs in state schools and government buildings, arguing that they violate secular laws.
Wearing a headscarf has been banned since 2004 in state-run schools.
You’re talking about “cultural” religious adherence, where there is true agency. I’m talking about “true believers” – they are the ones that don’t have much conscious choice. They are mentally ill but for cultural norms that chalk them up to just “fervent believers.” If they weren’t driving their nonnormativity into religion, whose very continuance relies on large numbers of these people existing, but rather into other areas, their illness would be plain as day. They didn’t have a “choice” because their family backgrounds made religion the easy target of obsessive and compulsive behavior.
EDIT: I know I am generalizing.
Whether a person believes they have divine inspiration or not, it is still their choice to follow it. In fact, that’s a key tenant of the faith in question. A deluded person is deluded; we don’t have to and shouldn’t indulge their delusion as if it was reality. And to be clear I’m not talking about religion here, I’m talking about genuinely mentally ill people as you describe. If a mentally ill person truly believes they are a duck it does not mean they are a duck, even if they choose to behave like one. When a mentally ill person believes they know the holy spirit Spirit it does not mean they know the holy spirit, even when they choose to behave as such.