Quebec’s secularism laws are once again at the centre of a heated debate. While Bill 21, adopted in 2019, already banned public employees in positions of authority — including teachers — from wearing visible religious symbols, the recently adopted Bill 94 has tightened enforcement across the entire school system.

Bill 21 included a grandfather clause allowing employees who were already wearing religious symbols before June 2019 to keep them, provided they remained in the same role. But Bill 94 removes much of that flexibility: employees not protected by the clause must now remove their religious symbols or risk losing their jobs.

About a dozen veiled women have already resigned, and up to 500 employees could potentially be affected.

The new legislation comes after roughly 17 schools were investigated for failing to comply with secularism rules, raising concerns about religious influence within the education system.

To better understand the broader ideological context behind the controversy, Belgian-Moroccan anthropologist and secular activist Fadila Maaroufi, director of the Observatory of Fundamentalism in Brussels, says the debate cannot be separated from a larger historical process.

“For 40 years in our democratic countries, we have seen a process of re-Islamization affecting populations of Muslim background,” she explains. According to Maaroufi, early generations of immigrants largely integrated into Western societies, but later waves of ideological influence — financed in part by foreign actors — sought to reshape identities.

“We were told: you are not Belgian, you are not Moroccan — you are Muslim. You belong to the Muslim community,” she says.

Maaroufi also challenges the common claim that wearing the veil is purely a personal choice.

“When they say ‘I choose to wear the veil,’ we have to be very clear: they choose to submit, because it is considered a divine obligation,” she says.

In some cases, she argues, resignations over secularism laws can themselves become a form of activism. “When these women withdraw from work rather than remove the veil, it is a political act.”

She warns that the issue is not limited to clothing but reflects broader ideological ambitions. “In political Islam, society must gradually become Sharia-compatible,” she explains. “You accustom people step by step to Islamic norms.”

Maaroufi also claims that social pressure plays a significant role within communities.

“Women who do not wear the veil are often told they are impure, that they are women of bad character,” she says. “Many who disagree simply no longer dare to speak openly.”

For Maaroufi, secularism laws such as Bill 21 and Bill 94 are only one part of the response.

“Secularism slows the phenomenon,” she says, “but it must also be defended with firm measures. Otherwise, little by little, people become accustomed to norms that were never part of our democratic societies.”

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