Nijab

[mijopo]

Apparently the Quebec government supported an ultimatum requiring a woman to remove her veil in order to continue to receive French lessons in Quebec. (link to G & M story)  The argument, or one of the arguments, was that it was harder to teach her pronunciation without being able to see her lips move.  This strikes me as an odd basis for the

Comments

[sourdick]

Probably "removing the nijab" was only part of the schools request. From the article: "She gave presentations from the rear of the classroom with her back to the class, which counted three men among 20 students. Hostility grew one day when she asked male students to move away from her. For one-on-one exercises, the woman would retreat to a corner with her female instructor.. ... But when a new segment of the class began in October, there was no guarantee the teacher would be a woman. The coincidental gender imbalance of the first segment would end just as the entire class was supposed to sit around a U-shaped table and converse"

So she can't be near men, she needs to work alone with a female teacher, who may or may not be available anymore, and she cannot participate in a round-table discussion with the class? Could any other student ask for this much extra attention? Perhaps a private tutor would be a better fit for her special needs, because she is basically unable to completely the class requirements because of her religious choice.

[mijopo]

Well, I'm only going by what the article claims.

But to your other worries, the notion of being tolerant does entail putting up with some inconveniences. It's hard to claim that on the one hand, we're a multicultural and tolerant nation while on the other refusing to make, what appear to me, relatively straightforward accommodations for someone's religion. I don't know, on the basis of reading a short newspaper article, whether the accommodations this women was requesting were completely unreasonable, but at first reading they strike me as quite peculiar but not overly burdensome.

[sourdick]

I agree, but the key word in reasonable accomodation is "reasonable." Seems like the class and teacher made a lot of effort to make her feel comfortable, but with the second session starting, they couldnt promise she'd have a female teacher, and they couldnt promise to have private time with an instructor simply because she felt like she couldnt participate in the open round table discussions (which seems like an important part of learning a language, just openly talking with a group).

Do you think the class and teacher DIDNT try to reasonably accommodate her?

[mijopo]

Well, IMO, they did and I thought they should continue to do so. But admittedly, I wasn't there and I don't know how obstinate she was being and to what level they were making an effort.

[harry_beast]

By all means, accord this woman some reasonable accommodation, but as a member of this tolerant, multicultural society, she has the same obligation in return to be open minded, reasonable and accomodating.

[kensmind]

There are always two sides to every story and unfortunately the media often only gives the more provocative side. The version you set out seems to provide some balance and if correct, I agree with you that there comes a point when we have to say "your demands are too high maintenance and your needs are disproportionate to those of the other students and detract from their education." At that point it becomes reasonable to take a stand at the risk of false accusations of discrimination. People often forget that the rights enshrined in our Charter are subject to reasonable limits "as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society" and are not meant to be absolute.