French Education and Youth Minister Gabriel Attal (left) meets with students in a classroom during the first day of school at the primary school of La Possession, on the island of la Reunion, on August 17, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

PARIS - France will ban children from wearing the abaya, the loose-fitting, full-length robes worn by some Muslim women, in state-run schools, its education minister said on Sunday ahead of the back-to-school season.

France, which has enforced a strict ban on religious signs in state schools since 19th-century laws removed any traditional Catholic influence from public education, has struggled to update guidelines to deal with a growing Muslim minority.

In 2004, it banned headscarves in schools and passed a ban on full-face veils in public in 2010, angering some in its five million-strong Muslim community

In 2004, it banned headscarves in schools and passed a ban on full-face veils in public in 2010, angering some in its five million-strong Muslim community.

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Defending secularism is a rallying cry in France that resonates across the political spectrum, from left-wingers upholding the liberal values of the Enlightenment to far-right voters seeking a bulwark against the growing role of Islam in French society.

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"I have decided that the abaya could no longer be worn in schools," Education Minister Gabriel Attal said in an interview with TV channel TF1.

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"When you walk into a classroom, you shouldn't be able to identify the pupils' religion just by looking at them," he said.