The wearing of abaya dresses by some Muslim women in French schools is a "political attack," a government spokesman said on Monday as he explained a new ban announced on the clothing.

A day earlier Education Minister Gabriel Attal said that the long, flowing dresses that originated in the Middle East would no longer be allowed in schools when the new term begins next week because they violate secular laws.

Government spokesman Olivier Veran said it was "obviously" a religious garment and "a political attack, a political sign" which he saw as an act of "proselytising" or trying to convert to Islam.

"School is secular. We say it in a very calm but firm way: it is not the place for that (wearing religious clothing)," he told the BFM TV channel.

Attal said on Monday that the government was clear that abayas "did not belong in schools."

"Our schools are being tested. These last few months, violations of our secular rules have considerably increased, particularly with regard to the wearing of religious clothing such as abayas or qamis which have appeared -- and remained -- in some establishments," he told reporters.

Attal's decision to ban abayas has sparked a new debate about France's secular rules and whether they are used to discriminate against the country's large Muslim minority.

A law of March 2004 banned "the wearing of signs or outfits by which students ostensibly show a religious affiliation" in schools.

This includes large Christian crosses, Jewish kippas and Islamic headscarves.

Unlike headscarves, schools had struggled to regulate the wearing of abayas which were seen as being in a grey area.

The government has sided with politicians on the right and far-right who had pushed for an outright ban, arguing that they are part of a wider agenda from Islamists to spread religious practice throughout society.

But politicians on the left and many Muslims see France's secular rules -- known as "laicite" -- as a front used by conservatives for Islamophobic policies.

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