Belgium: Schools may not ban veils

The Council of State has scrapped the dismissal of a Muslim teacher who was fired last year for wearing a headscarf outside of the classroom. The legal body says that an individual public school or public school district may not impose a general ban on religious symbols. This was reported in De Morgen on Tuesday.

In January 2006 a Brussels school district started dismissal proceedings against two Muslim teachers. Although the school district's administration had decided in 2005 that students and teachers may not wear any religious symbols, the two teachers refused to take off their headscarves outside the classroom, even after a warning.


The two teachers filed official protests against their dismissal but their appeal was rejected by the Flemish Community on 31 July 2006. One of the teachers decided to take the matter to the Council of State. This body has now declared her dismissal unlawful.


Source: Expatica (English)


See also: Brussels: Teachers fired for wearing veil

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

AFAIK to be a woman and a muslim entails to wear a veil, and thus it is not exactly expression but rather (for many muslim women) a sort of continuous prayer.

This is the constitution, here; it should not be shaken.

Anonymous said...

There is nothing in the Koran that states a woman should wear a veil. The veil is being used as a political symbol for fundamentalists.
Even if the veil was compulsory it should still be banned. We would not accept people walking around in chains so why should we accept women walking around as second class citizens.
We live in a democratic country where the rule of law prevails.
"Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, Give unto God what is God's"
If people want to live under allah then they should go to a country where sharia law prevails.