Belgian School Accused of Discriminatory Dress Code Enforcement in Anderlecht

"For several months, the management team of Athénée Joseph Bracops has implemented a systematic check of clothing at the entrance of the establishment. Each student is scrutinized upon arrival. Strict instructions have been given to educators to filter students at the door, to the point that some can no longer even use the entrance they usually used, but are forced to go through rue de la Procession - where control can be ’optimized’," writes Nadia Kammachi in her interpellation, of which La Libre has received a copy.

The Green Party representative denounces the harassment and discrimination these students are subjected to: "I say it clearly: what students are experiencing today amounts to harassment, coming from adults, authority figures. They are judged, intimidated, sent home for a piece of fabric, which would be likened to sweatpants or a dress deemed inappropriate." She adds: "Let’s be clear: when a student wears a long dress, it’s not so much the cut that bothers, but who wears it. Her first name, her origin, her personal history. Would a long colorful patterned dress worn by a student named Natacha be more easily accepted than a plain, sober, black dress worn by a student named Rachida?"

Nadia Kammachi explains the rationale behind her approach to interpellate the Municipal College: "I receive a lot of feedback from students about this issue, as I was a member of the parents’ association of this school. I didn’t want to act right away, hoping that time might improve things. But it’s getting worse and worse. So I decided to become the spokesperson for hundreds of students who go to school with a knot in their stomach." The former Anderlecht alderman subtly observes that these students would be victims of discrimination related to their religion. "Do the refusals have a religious connotation? I don’t know, but that’s the question I’m asking. What I’m denouncing is that the children are not all on an equal footing."

For its part, the management of Athénée Bracops refutes these allegations. "Students are not sent home for not complying with the dress code. A phone call is made to parents so they can bring them appropriate clothing. Otherwise, parents send a written note for the student to go home and change. No student is punished, let alone sent home," assures Luiza Duraki (PS), Anderlecht alderman for Education, specifying that the school’s internal regulations, in effect since 2008, prohibit "long skirts and long dresses if they drag on the ground. But there is no discrimination based on whether the student is of this or that origin." She plans to "file a complaint for defamation against Nadia Kammachi."

"I have never heard of these types of problems in this school. After the headscarf issue (Editor’s note: in 2023, as alderman, Nadia Kammachi had tried to have a vote on authorizing the wearing of headscarves in the administration), her proposal to organize a prayer at the Anderlecht stadium for the Eid festival, here we go again. Ms. Kammachi now comes with the Abaya question, because we understood that the interpellation was about that. Will we have a communitarian interpellation from Écolo every month? Écolo Anderlecht must move beyond exclusively communitarian debates to build a pluralistic society," fumes Sofia Bennani (Les Engagés), municipal councilor in Anderlecht and Brussels deputy.