French authorities will ban the wearing in school of abaya dresses worn by some Muslim women, the education minister said Sunday, according to the AFP news agency.
"It will no longer be possible to wear an abaya at school," Education Minister Gabriel Attal was quoted as having told TF1 television, saying he would give "clear rules at the national level" to school heads ahead of the return to classes nationwide from September 4.
The move comes after months of debate over the wearing of abayas in French schools.
There have been reports of abayas being increasingly worn in schools and tensions within school over the issue between teachers and parents.
"Secularism means the freedom to emancipate oneself through school," Attal said, describing the abaya as "a religious gesture, aimed at testing the resistance of the republic toward the secular sanctuary that school must constitute."
"You enter a classroom, you must not be able to identify the religion of the students by looking at them," he added.
A law passed in March 2004 banned "the wearing of signs or outfits by which students ostensibly show a religious affiliation" in schools. This includes large crosses, Jewish kippahs and Islamic headscarves.
Abayas, which are a long, baggy garment worn to comply with Islamic beliefs on modest dress, occupied a grey area and had faced no outright ban until now.
France previously outlawed the wearing of the Muslim niqab (full face veil) - part of the burqa, or full body covering worn by Muslim women - in public in April 2011, citing security concerns as the reason for the ban. Women who wear the veil face a 150 euro ($190) fine.
France was the first European country to impose such a ban, having introduced a ban on women wearing the burqa in 2010.
Last year, the French Senate voted in favor of banning the wearing of headscarves in sports competitions, arguing that neutrality is a requirement on the field of play.