Brussels (Brussels Morning) – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will on Wednesday give a ruling in a case brought by three young Belgian women against Belgium. They challenged the ban on headscarves in their secondary schools.
What prompted three young Belgian women to challenge the headscarf ban in court?
The three young Muslim women, aged 20, 22 and 23, brought the case to the court in November 2020. They claimed that they are unable to wear the Islamic headscarf in their secondary schools (except during religious education classes), following the prohibition in the official education system of the Flemish Community on sporting any visible signs of one’s religious beliefs.
While across Flanders it is up to most schools to determine for themselves whether pupils can wear a headscarf or not, sporting them or other ‘religious symbols’ in Flemish GO! (community education) schools has been restricted since February 2013 following a 2009 ruling on the matter. The idea is that schools in this group have to provide ‘neutral’ education.
What was the outcome of the previous court cases regarding headscarf bans in Flemish schools?
This decision initially discouraged the feathers of people in the Flemish Muslim community, but the subject soon broke down. However, the matter once again came to the vanguard several years ago when the prohibition became the subject of numerous court cases.
In February 2018, a court in Tongeren ruled on the case carried by 11 girls from two secondary schools in Maasmechelen in the Limburg province, including the three girls concerned in the ECHR case against Belgium.
What arguments did the young women present to the European Court of Human Rights?
It stated that they were permitted to wear headscarves at their schools despite the prohibition based on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which imposes the responsibility on European countries to allow all their residents to freely practise their religion. This ruling did, however, not annul the headscarf ban.
Almost two years later, at the end of 2019, the Court of Appeal in Antwerp supervised that a prohibition on sporting headscarves in the two schools in the municipality of Maasmechelen was justified, toppling the Tongeren court decision. It ruled that the prohibition on all philosophical and religious symbols was necessary for public education.
Flemish Education Minister Ben Weyts (N-VA) called on people to shift the page on the matter, but the girls and their parents thought further steps against the ruling. In 2020, a lawyer at the Court of Cassation gave a negative opinion on the appeal. The issue was therefore taken to the ECHR by three of the girls. It will rule on the case on Thursday morning.
Is the headscarf ban considered a violation of human rights according to the ECHR?
They claimed the ban on wearing “conspicuous religious symbols during teaching exercises introduced at their school infringed their right to respect for their private life, their right to freedom to display their religion or beliefs, their right to freedom of expression and their privilege to education. They maintain that this banning discriminates against them in the enjoyment of these rights”, an ECHR statement read.
Whether the ECHR will decide remains unclear. The Tongeren court ruling was based on the European Convention on Human Rights, but this does not signify the ECHR will rule in their favour.
In another case concentrated on the violation of religion – brought by several parties in the Jewish and Muslim communities against the Flemish and Walloon ban on the unstunned slaughter of animals – ECHR denied the claims that this breaches their religious freedoms. The ECHR added that the action appeared to be “justified in principle” and “proportionate” to the objective of protecting animal welfare.
