Education minister says ‘zero tolerance’ for xenophobia after headscarf incident

Education Minister Costas Hambiaouris said on Saturday he would make contact with the family of a Muslim pupil who was kicked out of her high school on Friday by the headmaster because she was wearing a headscarf.

The minister said his ministry had zero tolerance for racism and xenophobic behaviour.

A disciplinary probe into the incident is expected to be ready by Monday and if it emerges that there has been misconduct, then responsibilities would be attributed, the minister said.

Speaking to state broadcaster CyBC radio on Saturday Hambiaouris said he would contact the girl and her family and that if necessary, he would go to the school in question on Monday.

“The education ministry will show zero tolerance to racist and xenophobic behaviours,” he said.

Some of the pupils at the Apostolos Varnavas lyceum in the Nicosia district where the incident took place have called for abstention from classes on Monday in protest against the headmaster whom they called “conservative and racist”. They said the protest should continue until he is removed from his post.

A brief video taken on a mobile phone shows a man escorting a girl outside the school in a stern manner while pupils jeer on him and disapproving of the way he treated their fellow pupil.

Reports said the pupil, who is a graduate, is a refugee from Syria and has been living in Cyprus for the past five years.

The headmaster in question, Loizos Sepos, defended his action citing school regulations stipulating that pupils must not enter the school grounds with their heads covered.

Sepos told Sigmalive that the same regulation is applied in the winter when pupils come to school wearing hats.

“Why should there be an exception to the rule?” he asked.

He added that just as they don’t allow pupils wearing in school massive crucifixes, the same is true in this case. He argued that he was a headmaster in other schools where there were Muslim pupils but none of them was wearing a headscarf.

Commenting on the fact that his actions were deemed racist, he said: “Schools do not raise Taliban”, according to the news portal.

“It is our honour to receive (pupils) that have other religions but they must respect the rules,” he said.

From a political point of view, he argued, those same regimes that have prompted many Muslims to leave their countries of origin were forcing women to wear the headscarf.

But according to the head of Oelmek secondary education teachers’ union, Costas Hadjisavvas, the regulations are clear and the headmaster should not have acted the way he did.

He said it was an “inexcusable act” by such an experienced educator.

Secondary-school parents’ organisations also expressed their anger over the incident.

The headmaster’s action was also condemned by Children’s Rights Commissioner Leda Koursoumba, who told CyBC it was a “glaring incidence of racism.”

It was also condemned by political parties except for far-right Elam. The party’s youth branch said in a written statement that they would not allow Cyprus to be turned “into an Islamic caliphate.”

The party said that the headmaster was merely following the school’s rules and turned the girl away because she had refused to abide by his request to remove her headscarf.

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