NICE, France—Nawel Moumen, a 13-year-old French Muslim, was taken aside last spring by the dean of her middle school. The robe-like dress she had on was inappropriate, Moumen recalled the dean saying, because he considered it a religious garment. He warned her she would face detention if she wore it again.
France is expanding the definition of what kinds of clothes are unacceptable under the rules of laïcité, the country’s strict separation of religion and state. For nearly two decades, public schools have barred students from wearing a visible Christian cross, a Jewish kippah, a Muslim headscarf or any other religious symbol deemed ostentatious by school officials.
