Teacher receives death threats and is accused of ‘Islamophobia’ after asking Muslim pupil to remove her face veil – as required by French law – before taking exam at school in Paris

• The teacher received death threats after they asked Muslim pupil to remove her face veil before taking her exam at the Charlemagne High School in Paris
• In 2004, France banned people from wearing ‘religious symbols’ in schools 
• Paris prosecutor’s office said they were investigating the death threats

A teacher received death threats and was accused of ‘Islamophobia’ after they asked a Muslim pupil to remove her face veil – as required by French law – before taking an exam at a high school in Paris.

The teacher was attacked on social media following the altercation with the high school student, who had allegedly refused to remove her veil to take her baccalaureate exam at the Charlemagne High School in Paris on Thursday.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said they were investigating the death threats made against the teacher.

In 2004, France banned the wearing of ‘conspicuous religious symbols’ including the Muslim face veil, known as the niqab, at schools.

A teacher received death threats and was accused of ‘Islamophobia’ after they asked a Muslim pupil to remove her face veil – as required by French law – before taking an exam at the Charlemagne high school in Paris. Pictured: Students wait outside the Charlemagne High School in Paris on June 15, 2016 prior to a test

The teacher was attacked on social media following the altercation with the high school student, who had allegedly refused to remove her veil to take her baccalaureate exam at the Charlemagne High School in Paris on Thursday (file image of a woman wearing a niqab)

The student, from a Parisian high school, had been asked to remove the veil outside the examination room at the Charlemagne school so that staff could perform a standard identity check before the exam.

She had insisted on wearing the veil ‘despite several reminders of the law by the staff of the education office present at reception’, reported Le Figaro. 

The pupil is said to have eventually removed the headscarf after a ‘tense’ exchange with the teacher before she entered the examination room.

‘I removed it to avoid any conflict,’ the student said in an interview with Révolution Permanente as she claimed the teacher became ‘aggressive’ whilst demanding the pupil remove her veil. 

The altercation was tweeted by one of the student’s friends on Twitter. The user accused the teacher of being ‘Islamophobic’. 

Soon after, the teacher received death threats and some users demanded to know the teacher’s name and to be shown a photograph of the educator. Others called the teacher a ‘b***h’.

The student, from a Parisian high school, had been asked to remove the veil outside the examination room at the Charlemagne school so that staff could perform a standard identity check before the exam (file image)

The situation echoes that of the beheaded teacher Samuel Paty, who was targeted online and sent death threats after he showed his class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad for a debate on freedom of expression. His identity was posted on social networks. 

Mr Paty, 47, was beheaded near his school in a Paris suburb by 18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov, a Chechen, on October 16 2020. 

Since the attack, there have been a number of cases whereby teachers have been receiving threats – even from their pupils. 

In the most recent, the teacher filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office and investigation has been opened into ‘death threats’, ‘online moral harassment’ and ‘endangering the life of others by dissemination of information relating to private life’, reported Le Figaro. 

In February last year, a French teacher who warned of the spread of radical Islam in the country has been placed under police protection after he allegedly received death threats. 

The situation echoes that of the beheaded teacher Samuel Paty, who was targeted online and sent death threats after he showed his class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad for a debate on freedom of expression. His identity was posted on social networks

Mr Paty, 47, was beheaded near his school in a Paris suburb by 18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov, a Chechen, on October 16 

Didier Lemaire said the threats began after he wrote an open letter saying the state did not do enough to protect Paty. 

In November 2020, a French high school pupil was arrested for threatening to behead his teacher ‘like Samuel Paty’. 

The male pupil sent a message in a private Snapchat group asking other pupils to ‘threaten with death’ one of their school teachers. 

Weeks earlier, police in France questioned four 10-year-olds who voiced support for the beheading of Samuel Paty and who said they would kill their own teacher if he lampooned Islam’s prophet. 

‘They justified the teacher’s assassination by arguing that it was forbidden to offend the prophet and adding that they would kill their teacher if he caricatured the prophet,’ Interior Ministry spokeswoman Camille Chaize said. 

Again in November 2020, a 14-year-old French pupil was arrested after he threatened his teacher as she showed photos of a demonstration sparked by the attack on Charli Hebdo.

The teenager, from Savigny-le-Temple, allegedly told his teacher in class: ‘I’ll cut you up like Samuel Paty’.

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