Brussels - A ban on schoolgirls wearing the Islamic headscarf which has provoked furious demonstrations in the Belgian city of Antwerp is facing judgement day after a top official suggested that it should be suspended. Belgium's State Council is set to rule on Friday whether schools can legally ban the headscarf. Ahead of the ruling, the council's auditor suggested that the schools which had done so had overstepped their authority, and should therefore suspend the ban.
The auditor's opinion is not legally binding, but is often reflected in the final ruling. Flemish media on Wednesday speculated that a ruling which reflected the auditor's opinion could force the regional government to bring in a general ban.
At present, each school in Belgium's Dutch-speaking region of Flanders has the right to decide whether or not to allow the scarf. Around one third of the 700 schools in the region have banned the headscarf, one third explicitly allow it, and one-third have no rule, according to Flemish daily De Standaard.
Hitherto, the system had been credited with minimizing tension over the issue by allowing each school to consult with its own community.
But the introduction of a ban in two secondary schools in Antwerp and the nearby town of Hoboken on September 1 - the beginning of the academic year - sparked demonstrations from Muslim pupils.
This weekend, unknown vandals broke into the Hoboken school, scrawling "no headscarf, no pupil" over the walls and wrecking one classroom.
Antwerp imam Nordine Taouil also criticized the ban, telling local paper Gazet van Antwerpen that it "must absolutely be got rid of."
But Chris Weyers, head of the Hoboken school, said that the ban was necessary because some girls had been bullied into wearing the scarf by other pupils.
"They are being harassed by email, text messages and so on ... This goes against the freedom of speech the demonstrators are calling for," she said in an interview with the BBC.
