MUSLIM TEACHER LOSES HER JOB FOR WEARING A HIJAB IN CANADA’S QUEBEC

Tue 14 December 2021:

Backlash and outrage erupted in Quebec, Canada, after Fatemeh Anvari, a new Grade 3 teacher at Chelsea Elementary School, was fired for wearing a ‘hijab,’ a head covering worn by Muslim women as part of their religious practice.

The Muslim woman was asked to leave because Bill 21 in Quebec prohibits religious symbols and clothing from being worn while working for the government.

The bill was signed into law in Quebec in June 2019. The law protects teachers who work in public schools.

Public officials in “positions of power,” such as cops, attorneys, judges, bus drivers, doctors, social workers, and teachers, are prohibited from wearing religious symbols such as turbans, kippahs, and hijabs, according to the legislation.

However, the rule has a disproportionately negative impact on Muslim women and schools in the province, where 74.5 percent of teachers are women.

Anvari’s dismissal sparked protests at her school, with students and staff wearing green ribbons and displaying placards in her support.

“This is not about my article of clothing. This is a bigger issue … I don’t want this to be a personal thing because that won’t do any good to anyone,” Anvari told CTV News. “I want this to be something in which we all think about how big decisions affect other lives.”

Federal MPs have expressed their displeasure with the decision to remove Anvari from the classroom and reassign her to a literacy project focused on diversity and inclusion.

New Democratic party leader Jagmeet Singh said Anvari’s abilities as a teacher were never in doubt, but “because of the way she looked and they way she dressed, she’s no longer able to teach these kids. That is everything that is wrong with this bill.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that no one should lose their job because of their faith, but he declined to intervene, claiming that he didn’t want to inflame tensions between Quebec and the federal government.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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