Rabat – A mother’s Facebook post has sparked widespread controversy and gained attention among Moroccan internet users after she complained that her 14-year-old daughter was denied entry into her classroom for wearing an above-the-knee dress. The school banned the teenager for violating the school’s dress code policy.
Many sided with the school’s decision stressing that students and school staff should dress up “appropriately” and respect dress code policies when entering educational institutions. Others meanwhile denounced and criticized the school’s decision to ban the teenage girl from entering the classroom and considered it a violation of personal freedom and bodily autonomy, as well as gender discrimination.
The mother attached a picture of her daughter to her Facebook post where the girl is seen wearing an above-the-knee dress. A caption on the post says: “Here is the dress because of which my daughter was prevented from attending five hours of classes in mathematics, French, and social sciences, and was kept in the schoolyard, detained and subjected to taunts and insults.”
On Friday, May 13, the school administration called the mother to notify her of her daughter’s ban from entering the classroom for wearing “indecent” and “above the knee” clothes and requested she bring her daughter “proper clothes” to be allowed back into her classroom.
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According to reports, the Regional Academy of Education and Training in the Casablanca-Settat region has opened an investigation into the incident and will submit a report and take necessary measures. The academy noted that the girl is back at school and is regularly attending her classes.
Heated Debate
The incident sparked a debate on the right to freedom of expression with many activists and associations criticizing the school’s actions, as well as those supporting them. According to them, the student is a 14-year-old child who was wearing an ordinary dress that did not affect anyone’s freedom, adding that she should not lose her right to access school areas for wearing an above-the-knee dress.
Many pleaded for schools to focus on educating children, promoting human values, and providing sex education courses instead of adopting sexist dress code policies that perpetuate discrimination against female students and portrays them as objects that need to be covered.
Dress code policies targeting female students have been receiving major backlash and criticism across the world. Students and women’s rights activists highlight that schools’ dress codes are biased and treat males and females differently, as well as contribute to the sexualization of little girls.
In 2015, Maggie Sunseri, a high school student in Kentucky, US, produced “Shame: A Documentary on School Dress Code”, a film featuring interviews with her classmates and the school principal to explore the impact biased dress code rules can have on girls’ confidence and sense of self. The film gained great recognition and support with many acknowledging that those sexist dress codes target girls by body-shaming them and blaming them for promoting sexual harassment.
Those siding with the school’s approach highlighted that the dress code policy is not biased as it applies to both genders. Moroccan schools prevent all students from wearing shorts and short dresses and skirts, hats, sunglasses, having visible tattoos and piercings, as well as dying their hair in unnatural colors. Moroccan schools also ban boys from wearing long hair.
Supporters of the school’s decision have argued that conforming to dress code policies reflects one’s discipline and respect for the educational environment, stressing that people are free to dress as they please outside schools but should dress up appropriately and professionally inside schools.
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