Reassignment of teacher for wearing hijab draws ire

Fatemeh Anvari, a popular third-grade teacher at Chelsea Elementary School, was removed from the classroom and reassigned to another role because she wears a hijab in violation of a Quebec law barring some public servants in positions of authority, such as teachers and judges, from wearing religious symbols, including turbans and kippahs, at work.

News of Anvari’s reassignment spread quickly in emails and text messages between parents in Chelsea, Quebec, a community of some 6,900 people roughly nine miles from Parliament Hill, before a report in the local weekly, The Low Down, catapulted it to national and international attention.

Anvari’s removal put a face and a name on the 2019 law.