In Tunisian high schools, the dress code is not uniform. Actually, it is: but only for girls. Boys can wear what they like, and now the girls are up in arms.
One morning, instead of turning up for class wearing the regulation navy blue smock, a defiant group of adolescent girls came to school in white T-shirts instead, demanding an “end to discrimination”.
At the elite Bizerte public school in the north, as is the case in most high schools in the North African country, pupils have to sign a school rule stipulating that wearing a uniform applies to girls only.
One day in September, supervisors reminded senior female students who did not abide by this rule that if they did not wear the smock, a loose-fitting, long gilet, they would be sent home.
Ironically, the warning was passed on during a philosophy class — about the human body.
This “injustice” inspired many of the girls to take to social networks and vent their feelings, 18-year-old Siwar Tebourbi told
She said the girls agreed to take collective action on the following day “to demand that this discrimination must cease”.
So dozens duly turned up for class, wearing white. Several boys did the same, in solidarity with their classmates.
How did the school authorities react? By saying nothing. Thus was born the “Manish Labsetha” (“I won’t wear it”) campaign, referring to the offending garment.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one senior education official found it difficult to explain exactly what was happening.
He acknowledged the sensitivity of the subject, even though Tunisia is considered to be a pioneer in North Africa and the Middle East in the field of women’s rights.
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