We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors

This week, from 2020: Aisha Wakil knew many of Boko Haram’s fighters as children. Now she uses those ties to broker peace deals, mediate hostage negotiations and convince militants to put down their weapons – but as the violence escalates, her task is becoming impossible

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Vendors and diners at the World Halal food festival agree the industry is booming with good reason

“I don’t think there’s anything political or any other motivations to serving halal food. Simply put, why wouldn’t you want everyone eating your food?” said Tristan Clough, the co-founder of the fried chicken restaurant Coqfighter. He was one of the several dozen food vendors at the World Halal food festival being held at the London Stadium in Stratford on Saturday.

The event is being held 10 years on from the first halal-centric food festival that was launched in the capital. In the years since, the availability and acceptance of halal food has increased hugely. Finding halal meat in a supermarket is almost a given and the types of cuisines that are available to halal consumers continues to broaden. There are also signs that non-Muslims are seeking out halal food, especially meat, while some of the fastest growing food chains in the UK are Muslim-owned.

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Chronic underfunding has led to a record exodus of teachers but the government is using populist policy as a cheap distraction

Shortly before schools opened for the new term in September, Unicef France issued an alert that almost 2,000 pupils were homeless, twice as many as in January 2022. The UN’s warning was timely, because parts of the state education system in France are in crisis – if not entirely dysfunctional. Yet what made the headlines wasn’t such urgent challenges, but a manufactured controversy over what children are accused of wearing to school.

In a country where the far right is steadily gaining ground, politicians and policymakers know how to play on the fear of Islam as an easy way to mobilise public opinion and pander to populist ideas. Witness Gabriel Attal, France’s education minister, who made the ban on the abaya , the long loose dress favoured by some Muslims, his top priority for the new school year.

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Closely-watched trial of Nathaniel Veltman, charged with murder, could reshape how Canada prosecutes far-right extremism

The man accused of murdering four members of a Muslim family was motivated by white nationalist beliefs and was out to commit an act of “terrorism”, prosecutors have argued, during opening statements of a closely-watched murder trial that could reshape how Canada prosecutes far-right extremism.

Nathaniel Veltman, 22, is facing four charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder after driving his truck into five members of the Afzaal family while they were out for a walk in London, Ontario, on the evening of 6 June 2021.

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The state council rejected complaints that the ban was discriminatory and could incite hatred against Muslims

France’s top administrative court has upheld a government ban on traditional overgarments worn by some Muslim women and girls in schools and rejected complaints it was discriminatory and could incite hatred.

President Emmanuel Macron’s government announced last month it was banning the abaya in schools as it broke the rules on secularism, or laïcité , in education.

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Readers respond to an article about the ban on Muslim headscarves in French schools and the principle of laïcité

I understand the point made in this article ( Muslims are already excluded from French political life: that’s the real issue in the school abayas row, 5 September ), but I feel that it doesn’t tell the whole story. Laïcité is historically a pillar of the French school system.

Since 1880, teachers have been forbidden to show any religious or political views in order to protect pupils’ rights to their own opinions without undue influence. Priests are forbidden to have any influence in schools. Pupils are not allowed to influence other pupils, and any religious or political signs are forbidden. For example, my mother was not allowed to have a crucifix necklace at school. This law was created to protect freedom of conscience. It was not created against Muslims.

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Indonesian photographer Riska Munawarah uses old family pictures and fabric to construct works that question Islamic women’s identity

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that applies sharia law. Since its implementation in 2006, the Aceh government has made it mandatory for every Acehnese Muslim woman to wear the hijab.

I remember when, soon after the law came into force, the sharia police raided the area outside our house, approaching every woman who wasn’t wearing the hijab in public and handing out head scarves. My mother was shopping at the time and came home with a headscarf. From that moment on she wore the hijab. I was eight at the time and couldn’t understand why she was being made to wear one.

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Girls who refused to remove banned garment given letter saying ‘secularism is not a constraint, it is a liberty’, says minister

On the first day of the new academic year French schools sent home dozens of girls for refusing to remove their abayas, the education minister said on Tuesday.

Defying a ban on the Muslim garment, nearly 300 girls showed up on Monday morning wearing an abaya, Gabriel Attal told the BFM broadcaster. Most agreed to change, but 67 refused and were sent home, he said.

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Abaya-wearing girls are seen not simply as students, but as envoys of global Islamism conspiring against the French nation

When Gabriel Attal, the French education minister, went on national television for an interview to mark the start of the new school term, he had a clear message: “I have decided that the abaya can no longer be worn in school.” He elaborated: “When you walk into a classroom, you should not be able to identify the pupils’ religion by looking at them.” An official statement came a few days later confirming the ban on the long, loose dress worn by some Muslim women and girls. The practical effect of the announcement is that any young woman who turns up at the gates of her school wearing an abaya faces being barred from attending class or mixing with her classmates. “But,” added the minister, “students will be welcomed and there will be a conversation with them to explain the meaning of the rule.”

The ban on wearing the abaya should be seen as part of the colonial relationship that exists between the French state and French citizens descended from postcolonial immigration. It has a history marked by three key events: in 1989 the principal of a school expelled three teenage girls for wearing headscarves in class. In 1994 a government memorandum created a distinction between so-called “discreet” religious symbols, which it said were acceptable in schools, and “ostentatious” religious symbols, which were not. In 2004 a new law banned the wearing of veils or any “conspicuous” religious symbols in state schools.

Kaoutar Harchi is a French sociologist and the author of As We Exist: A Postcolonial Autobiography

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