A few dozen demonstrators gathered in Montreal on Wednesday in support of the teacher from Chelsea, Outaouais, who had to leave her class because she wears the veil. The Law on the secularism of the State does not respond to “any problem” and is in this sense “unacceptable”, they denounced.
“We are not against Quebeckers, we are not here to say that Quebeckers are racist,” declared Frank Baylis, co-chair of the “No to Bill 21” committee and former member of the Liberal Party of Canada. .
Only, he asks, “what did this woman do to lose her job”? “This is unacceptable,” adds Frank Baylis.
Earlier this month, teacher Fatemeh Anvari, who was a substitute teacher in a third year class at an English-speaking elementary school in the Outaouais, was assigned to other tasks than teaching because she wears the veil. .
The Law on the secularism of the State prohibits teachers – as well as other State officials in positions of authority (police officers, correctional officers, lawyers and judges) – from wearing religious symbols during their work.
“A frontal attack on women”
Samira Laouni had moved “in solidarity with Fatemeh”, but also to denounce a “frontal attack against women, more specifically Muslim women who wear a religious symbol”.
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Samira Laouni
Law 21 allows Muslim men to be teachers, but not women, illustrates Mme Laouni, herself veiled.
Amal Sassi was standing near Place des Arts with a poster reading “for secularism, against discrimination”. This year, she is completing her bachelor’s degree in teaching.
“I wanted to do substitute work, but now I can’t anymore,” says the 33-year-old woman, who practiced this profession for nine years in Tunisia.
The veil, she says, is not “ostentatious clothing.” “For me, it’s a garment that hides my body”, explains Mme Sassi.
She also considers that law 21 is a “means of oppression against veiled women”. “It’s part of Islamophobia,” adds Amal Sassi, who says she is certain that the law will be repealed.
Frank Baylis, co-chair of the “No to Bill 21” committee, recalls that “every modern society adds protections to [ses] citizens, it does not take away ”.