French schools refuse dozens of girls wearing Muslim dress

French schools sent dozens of girls home for refusing to remove their abayas – an over-garment from the shoulders to the feet worn by Muslim women – on the first day of the school year, a government minister said Tuesday.

Defying a ban on the Muslim dress, nearly 300 girls showed up Monday morning wearing an abaya.

Most agreed to change out of the dress, but 67 refused and were sent home, he said. The government announced last month it was banning the abaya in schools, saying it broke the rules on secularism in education that have already seen Muslim headscarves banned on the grounds they constitute a display of religious affiliation.

The move gladdened the political right but the hard-left argued it represented an affront to civil liberties.