'The keffiyeh should not be worn at school'

Wasim El-Haj has worked as a teacher for almost 15 years, including more than six years in his current role as a careers adviser at a public high school in Sydney. For nearly five years he volunteered as the convenor of the Selective Careers Advisers Network, a statewide body of careers advisers at academically selective schools. In November 2024, the Careers Advisers Association of NSW & ACT named Wasim their Careers Adviser of the Year.

In January 2024, Wasim began wearing his keffiyeh to work.

"My father was born in Haifa,” he says. “The keffiyeh helped me feel some comfort in terms of my own cultural connection as I carried on with my day. I felt a need to maintain a connection to my culture.”

Wasim wore his keffiyeh for four months without incident.

"People were indifferent,” he says. “Occasionally I would get a comment from a student or a staff member along the lines of 'I like your scarf, it looks pretty', but that's all.”

In 2023, the school had asked Wasim to wear his keffiyeh to one of the school’s days celebrating multiculturalism.

“I was told to ‘wear that scarf thing you guys wear’. That was how they put it.”

On May 15 2024, Wasim was called into his supervisor's office and told he could no longer wear his keffiyeh at work, and that he would face disciplinary action unless he complied.

In a follow-up email, Wasim's supervisor quoted a directive they had received in writing from the Department of Education instructing that "the staff member in question should be given clear advice, from you, that this item of clothing should not be worn at school, nor in the performance of any duties in connection with his employment.

"This advice should be complied with immediately."