.EVERY FEW years the French obtain worked up concerning a thing of theological clothes that they view as inappropriate in the classroom. This time around a conflict has broken out at la rentru00e9e, the start of the new academic year, over a government decision to outlaw coming from condition schools the abaya, a whole robe used by some Muslim females for quietness. To folks in countries with a custom of liberal multiculturalism, the restriction appears like an unacceptable infringement of the right to religious look. To protectors of a stringent model of French secularism, it is actually a measure necessary to protect the republic from theological disturbance. Why is France so anxious regarding Muslim dress in its universities?