Belgian Official’s Headscarf Sparks Renewed Controversy in Equality Institute

This is not the first time that Corentin de Salle, a member of the Reformist Movement (MR), has taken a stand to denounce the veil of the government commissioner to the Institute for Equality between Women and Men, appointed less than a month ago. The appointment of the young Belgian woman of Moroccan origin remains a hard pill to swallow for the liberals. Yet it is not the merit that is lacking in Ihsane Haouach, graduated with great distinction from the Solvay school, reports Le Soir.

Last Wednesday, during the meeting of the institute’s board of directors, Corentin de Salle would have explained, at the beginning of the session, and "on behalf of the MR", that he had a "real problem with her attending the board veiled". He would then have asked her not to wear her headscarf during her participation, or to abstain from sitting there.

Ihsane Haouach replied to the administrator that he had no right to tell her how to dress. For the government commissioner, the Board of Directors is not the place to return to a debate settled elsewhere. This was followed by a lively exchange between the two personalities, before the commissioner invited Corentin de Salle to respect the Institute, failing to respect her person, wishing to resume the agenda of the meeting.

Contacted by Le Soir, Ihsane Haouach refrained from any comment, but Corentin de Salle explained that he does not intend to sit and work "with a person who violates the principle of neutrality as if nothing had happened". For the MR, the fact that nothing is mentioned within the framework of the Institute seems problematic. "I regret that the representatives of the various other parties did not wish to speak on the subject," he said.

On the issue, the vice-president of the Board of Directors, Maïté Warland, accused the MR administrator on Wednesday evening of having violated the obligation of confidentiality imposed by the regulations, and of "deliberately sabotaging the work of the Board of Directors for the sole purpose of maintaining a controversy on which his party has chosen to campaign". For his part, the Prime Minister indicated that the subject was closed, and called for a serene debate on neutrality and not around the personality of Ihsane Haouach.