“It is quite simply a crime of facies. » A few hours after filing a complaint with the Lyon prosecutor for “discrimination due to religious affiliation”, Nabil Boudi does not lose his temper. Tuesday, the day of the start of the school year and her entry into second grade, her client, a 15-year-old high school student, was excluded from a class because of her clothing. Namely a kimono that she had worn as a jacket over a black t-shirt and jeans.
“The day before, this young girl had presented herself during the pre-entry and there was no difficulty with her outfit. The next day she went to her class. There was no difficulty from the teaching staff,” he assures. Everything would have changed when “the CPE” burst into the class to “give a general reminder of the operating rules”.
“A humiliation”
“He pointed at her and asked her to come closer. He will grab her in front of all the other students in her class and ask her to take off her kimono. She responded by explaining that it was not at all a religious garment,” relates Nabil Boudi, also deploring that the educational advisor “did not wait until the end of the course or the break” to speak to her. as an aside. “Then he asked her to leave the class and go to the principal’s office manu militari,” he continues. What she experienced as “a humiliation” in front of comrades she did not know, being new to the establishment.
Faced with the principal, the high school student then refused to take off her clothing and was invited to return to her home, the lawyer further assures. What the rectorate of Lyon disputes. “This student was not expelled from high school. She came back to class in the afternoon,” he tells 20 minutes.
“This is false,” retorts Nabil Boudi, specifying that the young girl resumed classes the next day, “at the request of her parents who did what was necessary to be received” by the supervisory team. “We explained to my client that she had been seen near the school with a veil or a headband in her hair. And therefore, they deduced that she was of Muslim faith, argues the lawyer. This kimono was a pretext. If her name was Jessica, Sophie or Lucie, she would never have been criticized for wearing a kimono. It is simply discrimination. »
A “margin of appreciation on the outfits worn by the students”
“The head of the establishment followed the instructions contained in the minister’s memo sent on August 31,” defends the rectorate, refuting these accusations but taking “note of the family’s choice to file a complaint.”
“This memo concerns the wearing of “abaya or qami” type outfits and not strictly abayas or qamis, which entitles the head of the establishment to a margin of appreciation over the outfits worn by the students,” he adds. And to conclude: “The phase of dialogue with the students requested by this same memo was respected since the student was received by the management team the same day at the end of the morning. During this exchange he was reminded of the rule. »