Hundreds of students protest in the streets of Parla against the ban on wearing the Islamic veil in class in three high schools in the Madrid municipality.
The demonstration was called by the Student Union and brought together IES Nicolás Copernicus, Narcís Monturiol Institute, and Humanejos, the three educational centers whose internal regulations prohibit the use of the ‘hijab’ in the classrooms.
In the Community of Madrid, there is no specific regulation, and each school sets its own rules. This issue has divided educational institutions there.
At 11:00 a.m., the protest started from Nicolás Copernicus where students, some wearing hijabs and others not, joined forces to demand «classrooms free from sexism, racism, and Islamophobia,» according to the organization.
The banners carried by the students read: «my hijab, my right to education without exclusion» or «women have been fighting for centuries for freedom and education so that it does not depend on our clothing,» «banning the hijab is racism disguised as secularism.»
«I am an atheist but this fight is also mine (…) You cannot enter with your hijab and yet images of the Virgin can,» shouted one of the attendees with the microphone in hand. They accuse educational institutions of being racist and Islamophobic.
Teachers defend the internal regulations and explain that they are not against the veil, but against any clothing that covers their heads and allows them to cheat on exams. «Now they cheat with earpieces,» they claim. Some students criticize grouping a cap, a hood, and a hijab together because they believe it should be seen as a religious symbol.
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