Belgian Hospital Nurse Accused of Religious Discrimination Against Moroccan Patient

"I had a very sore big toe and I went to have a scan. When a Turkish nurse came to get me from the waiting room, I wanted to shake his hand. But to my great surprise, he refused. ’I’m not allowed to shake a woman’s hand, because that’s what the Quran says. If I do, I have to purify my hands,’ he told me," Rachida, accompanied by her six-year-old daughter, confided to Het Laatste Nieuws.

This attitude of the nurse annoyed Rachida, who is also a nurse. "We don’t have an easy life as foreigners in Flanders. Racism is more and more present, everywhere. And then this man adds to it. It gives grist to the mill of those who think immigrants would be better off leaving. [...] What does the Quran have to do with the treatment of sick people?" the patient fumed angrily. According to her, shaking hands with someone is a basic form of politeness in Belgium. Better, "it has nothing to do with faith," she added.

"We have received a complaint to our mediation service and we will now examine it more closely. [...] I was able to speak briefly to the nurse. He does not deny the facts, but claims that everything took place in a completely different context," said Kristien Elsen, the director of the human resources and communication department of the Sint-Franciscus hospital. She promised to bring the two parties together in the hope of soon shedding light on this matter.