A Sydney teenager has filed a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission after he was banned from attending his coming school formal because he wore a scarf with the keffiyeh pattern to his graduation ceremony.
In an incident that comes amid heightened community tension over the war in Gaza, the year 12 student said he was humiliated and distraught after several staff members at Condell Park High School demanded that he remove the traditional black-and-white patterned scarf that symbolises his Palestinian heritage at the ceremony held in the school hall.
The 17-year-old has filed a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission after being banned from his school formal next week.Credit: Edwina Pickles
This was despite the south-western Sydney school’s long-standing custom of encouraging students to wear garments and accessories of cultural significance. Photographs from the September event show other students wearing other cultural artefacts, including feathered cloaks and garlands, over their graduation gowns.
The war in Gaza has triggered deep ruptures within local institutions, including schools, universities, the Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, sustained protests in major cities and disturbing acts of vandalism.
It also follows concerns that public schools could expose themselves to legal risk if they instituted bans on Palestinian students or staff wearing keffiyehs, after the Education Department advised them to maintain neutrality on Israel and Gaza.
The teenager, who requested not to be identified, said staff members accused him of making a political statement and prevented him from posing with friends and a senior staff member for a group photograph while he wore his scarf.
The 17-year-old wearing the scarf at his graduation ceremony in September.
The 17-year-old said his older sister handed him the garment as he waited to receive his graduation certificate so he could wear the symbol of his Palestinian heritage on the most important day of his schooling life.
But when the teenager returned to his seat, staff members approached him twice and told him to hand over his scarf.
“I kept explaining that it’s a cultural thing that I wear on special occasions, but they kept saying that I was making a political statement in a public school and I can’t do that,” the teenager said.
“They said it wouldn’t be the smartest decision to keep it on and that I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of the higher-ups so close to the end of the year.”
‘The experience has ruined my high school memories. It’s supposed to be a place where I feel safe, and I’m not judged for who I am, but I was wrong.’
The 17-year-old Condell Park High School student
Outside the hall, another staff member refused to pose for a group photograph with the teenager if he did not remove the scarf, the teenager said.
Parents of other students asked staff members to let him wear the scarf, and his own family members repeatedly told staff it was not a political statement but a cultural symbol to honour his Palestinian roots, he said.
Two weeks later, the teenager was called to a senior staff member’s office and told that he was not permitted to attend his year 12 formal – to be held next Thursday, November 28 – as a result of his decision to wear the scarf.
“The experience has ruined my high school memories,” the student said. “I’ve been going there since I was in year 7. It’s supposed to be a place where I feel safe, and I’m not judged for who I am, but I was wrong.”
The teenager’s older sister, who attended the graduation ceremony, said the school’s treatment of her brother was outrageous, given that other students wore culturally significant garments without incident.
“The keffiyeh is a centuries-old garment worn by my family, grandparents, great-grandparents and many others in the Palestinian community,” she said.
“The public school system, which should be an inclusive environment, should not be punishing children because of their cultural background.”
A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Education said its rules were clear about keeping school events apolitical so all students, staff and community members feel safe and included. “The school will continue to work with the family and their legal representatives to resolve this matter,” they said.
The teenager’s lawyer sent a complaint to the Department of Education requesting a formal apology and that he could attend the formal, and the department responded via its lawyers.
The teenager’s solicitor, Abdullah Reslan of Kings Law Group, declined to comment on the details of the complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission, but said: “There are state and federal laws in place to protect the community against racial discrimination.
“Schools should be an exemplar of these standards and a safe place for children.
“It is alarming that taxpayer money is being spent on lawyers to prevent an innocent boy from attending his formal alongside his peers in these circumstances,” Reslan said.
Speaking about the keffiyeh specifically, Anas Iqtait, lecturer at the Australian National University, said it was cultural attire worn for thousands of years.
“Palestinians wear it during important celebrations like graduations, weddings, national holidays and family celebrations,” Iqtait said.
“It also gained political symbolic standing from the 1960s onwards as distinctively symbolising Palestinian liberation, but this does not reduce the fact that it also continues to be cultural attire, and not to express political statements, but because this is who they are.”
Greens MLC Abigail Boyd said her office had received multiple accounts of teachers and students being banned from wearing the keffiyeh or Palestinian flag patches on their bags due to a Department of Education communique titled “Supporting the school community during the current conflict in the Middle East” sent to schools in November 2023, which advised schools to reflect “a neutral position”.
Boyd’s office had warned schools that this interpretation of the department’s guidance risked legal challenges.
“This is trying to erase a person’s culture while they let other students express theirs,” Boyd said.
“It sends a message to kids that some places are not OK to come from.”
At a budget estimates hearing in August, Deputy Premier and Education Minister Prue Car and NSW Department of Education secretary Murat Dizdar acknowledged that the guidance needed to be reviewed.
In November 2023, Car criticised teachers for displaying pro-Palestinian signs and wearing keffiyeh scarves at public schools, saying classrooms “are not places for political activism”.
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