Morocco Education Official Accused of Overstepping Authority in Niqab Controversy

– bySaid@Bladi · 1 min read
Morocco Education Official Accused of Overstepping Authority in Niqab Controversy

The alleged "humiliation" and "expulsion" of a teacher wearing the niqab by the provincial director of Education in Tiznit was denounced by the National Federation of Democratic Teaching-Orientation (FNE-démocratique).

For the federation, the incident shows "the ignorance of the director of the law, because he exceeded his powers in the examination center, where the head of the center is the sole and only responsible. He has exceeded the limits of his powers which are simply to verify the identity of the teacher by asking for her identity card. He has no right to ridicule an outfit that remains a personal choice and to qualify it in a degrading way."

But in a statement to TelQuel, the director refutes the accusations, claiming that the teacher, who presented herself to an establishment where she was not on duty to supervise the exams, had completely covered her face, making her identification difficult for the supervisors and officials.

He states that this situation is unacceptable in an educational institution and recalls that the law requires that the employee’s identity be recognizable, arguing that the denial of access to the teacher to her work for this reason does not constitute discrimination or a violation of her rights.