Thursday,
28 May 2026 - 08:38
Two
Deputy PMs in last Dutch gov’t wanted headscarves declared as hindering
emancipation
Two
deputy Prime Ministers from the Schoof I Cabinet tried to have headscarves
declared as an obstacle to women’s emancipation. Civil servants managed to stop
this, Investico reported based on over 600 emails and several text messages
received through the Open Government Act.
Then-Deputy
Prime Ministers Fleur Agema (PVV) and Mona Keijzer (BBB) wanted a parliamentary
letter on emancipation from November 2024 to include headscarves as an obstacle
to women’s emancipation.
At Agema
and Keijzer’s insistence, the draft letter included the sentence: “People who
no longer dare to be visible out of fear of the reactions of Islamic men.”
Civil servants at the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science opposed that
and several other of the Ministers’ suggestions.
One civil
servant pointed out that “once again, only Muslims are consistently singled out
and projected as a threat to ‘our’ women and gays.” The sentence did not make
it into the final letter. They also called various other suggestions “untrue,”
“polarizing,” and “stigmatizing.”
According
to Investico, that was one of several attempts to use the emancipation policy
for the right-wing government’s anti-immigration agenda. The communications
showed that the civil servants had expected a request from the Council of
Ministers to “name that many problems concerning women/LGBTQ+ are caused by
Muslims.”
Agema was
Minister of Public Health, and Keijzer the Minister of Housing. According to
Investico, these right-wing Ministers repeatedly and in detail interfered with
the policy of State Secretary Mariëlle Paul (VVD), who had emancipation in her
portfolio.
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