WUNRN
BELGIUM - DUTCH LANGUAGE PUBLIC
SCHOOLS IN BELGIUM
WILL BAN THE WEARING OF MUSLIM
HEADSCARVES
AFP/BELGA/File – Muslim
students demonstrate in
September 11,
2009
The ban affects 700 schools in the northern
region of Flanders, including some in
It follows protests after two schools in
Responding to a complaint by a student at one
of the schools,
The tribunal will rule on the student's appeal next Tuesday -- prompting the community's education board to make public its unified stance on Friday.
Belgian schools have previously enjoyed autonomy in such decisions, with one third authorising the wearing of Muslim headscarf, another forbidding them and the remainder giving no formal guidance.
The Flemish school board said the ban in
communal schools would be introduced gradually to give time to those
establishments which have not banned the scarf to do so.
Schools in
School authorities in the main Flemish town
of
A similar debate is underway in
Controversy has raged in a number of European
countries in recent years over the wearing Muslim
headscarves and other religious garments in state or public institutions.
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