VVD again pushing ban on enforcement officers wearing headscarves, crosses
After years of bickering between local and national politicians, the VVD is submitting a bill to officially ban enforcement officers (BOAs) from wearing religious symbols, the Telegraaf reports. According to VVD MP Claire Martens, a secular country like the Netherlands requires people in authority to wear secular uniforms without headscarves, yarmulkes, or crosses.
Unlike police officers, enforcement officers don’t fall under the code of conduct regarding lifestyle neutrality. Municipalities - the primary employer of BOAs - can therefore allow leeway in the uniform.
Several larger municipalities, including Amsterdam, The Hague, and Tilburg, have allowed enforcement officers to supplement their uniforms with religious symbols such as hijabs, yarmulkes, or crosses if they choose. According to the municipalities, this opens the profession to more people and helps enforcement officers connect to more communities.
Martens considers it “undesirable” that municipalities have different uniform rules, she told the newspaper. With her bill, she wants to introduce a BOA uniform without visible religious symbols. “We have already arranged this for the police and the army,” Martens said. “Now we want the same for BOAs.”
“Religious symbols do not belong with a uniform in a secular country," said Martens. According to the Telegraaf, her proposal can count on majority support in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament.
VVD Ministers have been trying to ban enforcement officers from wearing religious symbols for years, usually arguing that wearing something like a headscarf affects an officer’s neutrality.
In 2024, the Institute for Human Rights said about then-Justice Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz’s plan that a ban on religious symbols would be both stigmatizing and ineffective in guaranteeing the BOAs’ neutrality. "Assess neutrality and impartiality of enforcers by their behavior and actions, not by them wearing a religious symbol or clothing."
Last year, then-Justice Minister David van Weel again wanted to implement a ban, but never got that far.
