Brussels Professors Challenge Court Ruling on Hijab Ban in Higher Education

The decision of the Court of First Instance last November in favor of the students who had been prohibited from wearing the veil in the school is not to the liking of the professors. A collective has wished to prohibit them and filed a new appeal in this direction, with the support of the Centre for Secular Action (CAL), reports Belga.

This procedure allows a person to ask the judge to rule again on a case that has already been dealt with, even if they did not intervene in it. However, the first judgment must affect their rights or interests.

For Hervé Parmentier, Deputy Secretary General of the CAL, it is urgent that the Court of First Instance of Brussels reconsider its decision. "The courts are coming to substitute themselves for the political powers. The decree says that it is not so much up to the City of Brussels or the organizing authority to make this kind of decision, to prohibit or not, but rather to the legislator of education, in this case the parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation," he stressed.

On their side, the students gathered within the Collective the 100 graduates said they were worried. According to Sabrina, one of its members, the arguments put forward by the CAL and the professors are not valid. The professors are going far beyond the scope of their teaching mission by giving their opinions on the religious expression of their students, she deplored.

"The third-party appeal is available to all citizens and we are delighted about it. But, in this case, it is an exceptional procedure used in a case that has already consumed a lot of energy and for which justice has already ruled. We are facing a form of relentless pursuit on the part of these teachers. Are they really neutral?" she wondered.