The student’s mother published a picture of her minor daughter wearing a skirt, which she attached to a post saying: “Here is the dress, because of which my daughter was prevented from attending five hours of lessons in mathematics, French and social sciences, and she was kept in the school yard, detained and subjected to taunts and insults.”
Incident details
The details of the incident, according to the student’s mother, date back to Friday, May 13, when the school administration of the Regional Directorate of National Education in the Hassani neighborhood of Casablanca called her to notify her that her daughter was being prevented from entering the classroom because of a dress she described as “indecent” and “above the knee.” I asked her to go to the establishment and bring her underwear or other clothing. But the mother, who was busy at the time, invited them to take her into the classroom pending the settlement of the problem at the beginning of the following week, due to her inability to attend.
The mother chose to protest this position, which she considered offensive to her liver, by publishing a picture of her daughter wearing the “controversial” dress on her Facebook page, accompanied by an angry comment. Hence the spark of comments between those in solidarity with it and in support of the administration’s decision.
The mother also later indicated in a statement to the press that she might temporarily suspend her daughter’s studies, after the school director came out in statements to local media justifying his decision that the student’s dress was “indecent” and “contrary to internal law.”
A discussion about school dress
In the midst of the discussion about the sanctity of educational institutions and the need to abide by internal laws, and activists’ fears of restrictions on freedom of dress, Bushra Abdo, director of the Challenge Association for Equality and Citizenship, said: “Unfortunately, this issue resurfaces frequently. She is expelled because of her dress, although her family confirms that her dress does not violate public modesty and does not go outside the scope of normal dress.
And she continued, “The skirt is a very ordinary dress that does not affect anyone’s freedom, but only those who consider that a woman is just a body and a fitna.” She called for “educational institutions to focus on education on values, on sexual education and on human values that respect the status of girls and women.”
For his part, the collective actor Abdelali Al-Rami, in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”, referred the ministerial memorandum No. 17-094 dated July 18, 2017, regarding the school uniform for girls and boys in compulsory education.
This reference note, which frames the standardization of school uniforms in Morocco, is addressed to all directors of regional academies of education and training, directors and regional directors, directors and directors of educational institutions, and asks them to work on adopting the school uniform for male and female learners in the primary, preparatory and secondary education streams.
The uniform in Morocco is limited to the jacket only. As for what is below it, it remains under diligence for students and their parents, some of whom accept the decisions of the management of the educational institution and some of them reject them.
Ministry move
In a related context, “Sky News Arabia” learned that the Casablanca Regional Academy of Education and Training opened an investigation into the case of preventing a student from entering the department because of her dress.
According to identical sources, a committee from the Regional Academy was dissolved in the institution affiliated with the Regional Directorate of National Education in Hay al-Hasani, in order to verify the incident and prepare a report on it to be submitted to the officials.
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