The abaya has undergone a quiet yet powerful transformation. What was once a strictly traditional garment has evolved into a ...

Young, urban women in Afghanistan are increasingly ditching the all-enveloping blue burqa with a face mesh that has become a ...

Public schools in France have been turning away students for breaking a new national ban on the abaya, a long, robe-like garment often worn by Muslim women, as a rights group filed an appeal ...

France is to ban Islamic garments known as abayas in schools from September, the government announced Sunday, with a top official calling them a "political attack" and an attempt to convert people ...

France will ban schoolchildren from wearing abayas ahead of the upcoming academic year, the government has said, the latest in a series of contentious restrictions in the country on clothing ...

For nearly two decades, public schools in France have barred students from wearing religious symbols. But the abaya—a long, cloak-like covering—was a gray area until recently.

In some conservative countries, the abaya is part of expected dress. But in countries where Muslims are in the minority, the abaya can be a way for women to connect with their religious identity.

The decision on the robes, worn by some Muslim women, is part of a ban on religious symbols in state schools to uphold France's strict brand of secularism.

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.