Vlaams Belang asks for a headscarf ban for employees of the Flemish government and all local municipalities. Filip Dewinter, head of Vlaams Belang in the Flemish parliament, intends to make such a proposal. Dewinter also wants a general ban on wearing a headscarf in school.
Last year Antwerp implemented a headscarf ban for city employees who work at the front desk. Other municipalities such as Ghent, Lokeren and Lier, later implemented similar bans. According to Dewinter a ban an headscarves is "not harassment of Muslims, but an issue of elementary democratic interest." He says that the headscarf is *the* preeminent symbol for the inferior status of the woman in Islam.
Dewinter's proposal says that personnel of the Flemish government or local municipalities who will wear a headscarf despite the ban will be notified. If they ignore it, they would be fired.
In the educational system the headscarf ban would be applied to both teachers and other employees as well as students and visitors. Whoever comes to a school wearing a headscarf would be denied entrance, according to the Vlaams Belang proposal.
Source: HLN (Dutch)
