Headscarf Ban Sparks Outrage at Belgian High School Graduation

The decision by the school administration not to hand the girls their diplomas during the ceremony, which took place at the Town Hall, if they did not remove their headscarves, sparked a heated controversy. In a video recorded by a witness, a large part of the audience can be seen applauding the two students, who remained at the back of the room. A humiliation experienced by these two veiled girls. "For the first time in my life, I felt the humiliation of ’I am not like you’, I have to stand at the back of the room on the day of my graduation," fumes Hamile, one of them, to RTBF.

This decision by the school administration is in line with the internal regulations, assures Thomas Eraly (Ecolo-Groen), the alderman for education, who was present at the ceremony. "The school administration has simply applied the internal regulations voted by the municipal council. This provides that the wearing of ideological symbols is prohibited during school hours. This applies within the school premises and during school outings. The graduation of 6th year secondary school students is part of school hours, and therefore the students could not wear any ideological symbol on the day of the graduation," he explained.

And he continued: "Two students refused to comply with the regulations. That is their right. They were invited to join the audience. Which they did calmly. And despite the shock they experienced, they even applauded the graduation of their classmates." The alderman, however, regretted "that people are excluded from such an important, symbolic and fundamental moment in their school life," adding that "we have agreed with the educational inspectorate of the Schaerbeek municipal education to work with the administrations so that this does not happen again."

The Schaerbeek PS (Socialist Party) denounced the application of the regulations in this circumstance. "To hide behind an internal regulation to justify such treatment amounts to validating a zealous and stigmatizing interpretation of the rules. What happened is a mistake," it said in a statement, demanding apologies from the school and the municipality.