With a rainbow bracelet around his wrist, Jaser Husseini (39) prays about five times a year in the mosque in Nijmegen. He then wears the band on purpose, to “seek a little conflict.” At the end of the prayer, mosque visitors almost always seek him out to ask why on earth he is wearing that thing. “Sometimes people get very angry with me, but sometimes for the first time they walk away with different arguments.”
Husseini is a citizenship teacher at the automotive technology course at the ROC in Nijmegen. Every now and then he takes a few Muslim students to the mosque, or he joins them when they ask: “Sir, we are going to pray, will you come with us?”
These boys, often between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, are the ones whose teacher takes the rainbow flag with them everywhere, says Husseini. Especially to places where people don’t expect it. Husseini: “I am aware that I have a non-stop role as an example for them.”
That is why Husseini also placed the rainbow flag in the school’s garage, where the bright colors of the flag stand out against the concrete walls of the warehouse. And he placed a sticker of the pride flag on his silver work laptop. “The flag is a great reason for a good conversation.”
‘A good conversation’ – Husseini repeats it thirty times in the hour-long conversation, Friday afternoon in an empty classroom overlooking the garage.
Purple garment
Husseini fled Afghanistan when he was 12, is the only teacher with a migration background at the course, and is Muslim. He stands out, especially because he is also one of the faces of his school’s Purple Friday campaign and the COC, the national LGBTI+ organization that coordinates the day.
December 12 is Purple Friday. Pupils, students and educational staff are encouraged to wear a purple garment that day in solidarity with LGBTI people. The day has been organized for fifteen years and focuses on discrimination and intolerance, especially against the LGBTI+ community.
Last year, two in three secondary schools and MBOs (1,000 out of more than 1,500) and one in three primary schools (1,900 out of more than 6,000) requested a Purple Friday lesson package from the COC. This year the COC expects the same number.
Husseini, himself heterosexual, sits with five colleagues, in the of the school. GSAs provide support to LGBTI+ students and make sexual and gender diversity a topic of discussion in schools, with support from the COC. The GSA at Husseini’s school was founded three years ago. “We received feedback from students who needed this because they did not feel safe and accepted.”
How did you notice that?
“Automotive technology is a technical course. I often hear that there are no LGBTI students. But there certainly are. They come together through the GSA. We organize evenings with them, order pizzas, have a good time. These young people often have few friends at school. On these kinds of evenings they can be themselves and make friendships.
“I have students from the rainbow community who sometimes say ‘no’ because of their orientation. They need guidance and help. I heard from students that they were not safe at home, that they were abused because they had come out of the closet. Then we contacted the management and they were helped into a room, for example via . But the feeling of insecurity remained – the feeling of not being accepted for who you are.”
I notice something of recognition in you.
“Yes, I was also a student, a student with a migration background. I fled Afghanistan when I was twelve. My father was against the oppression of women and people from the Taliban. He fled with us, risking his life.
I became friends with a boy who was bullied because he was gay. I was bullied because I was the only migrant
“At my high school in Venray there were no other students with a migrant background. I was called names because of my origins or skin color. I became friends with a boy who was bullied because he was gay, and I was bullied because I was the only migrant. We are still friends.
“Now I am in a role where I can create friendships. One of the ways you get to know each other is by having difficult conversations.”
You often talk about a good conversation.
“These are really necessary. Some students do not know the subject or do not support it.
“The flag means a lot to students. It makes LGBTI people feel seen. But a student also once said: ‘I thought you were cool, why do you have that flag?’ when he saw the sticker on my laptop. I then ask them to think more deeply about my question whether they really think that LGBTI people should not be there. They have often never thought about that. After ten minutes they appear to be less strict than they think. When I ask if they would still hit someone, they say ‘no’.”
Where do their hard views come from?
“Eight, nine or even ten hours of screen time is quite normal for my students. They watch five or six hours of that on TikTok. If you do that seven days a week, it does something to you. Students come across videos by Andrew Tate, who praise the boys, and other videos with arguments against women and the rainbow community. For example, if a woman is scantily clad, they think through videos that they have the right to touch that woman. That gets into their heads. By talking about it you prevent perpetrators and victims.
“Some students think they have to make harsh statements about the rainbow community do because of their background. They live in bubbles. I have students from villages who have never seen anyone with a migration background or an LGBTI person. Or students who think they are saying this because they are Muslim.”
What do you do when Muslim students say: this is not allowed according to my religion?
“Then I take out the Koran, which I have in my cupboard, in Dutch. I have read it a few times myself, so I know what it says. It is about one sentence that the young people are talking about. Then I also show other parts about acceptance and respect for each other. Then they are often shocked, and they do not soften their argument yet.”
Can someone without an Islamic background also work with young people?
“I find that a difficult question. Well, if he prepares well and does it with pure intentions. But if you don’t have enough knowledge, you achieve the opposite.
If you provide teachers who are Islamic, Jewish, Christian, you name it, that helps
“I actually don’t think there is enough diversity in schools. If you provide teachers who are Islamic, Jewish, Christian, you name it, that helps. Or teachers from the rainbow community and teachers with disabilities. Then you can have strong conversations and ask each other for help. Because I don’t know what the Torah says either.”
To guide the discussions about Purple Friday in the right direction, the COC offers schools lesson packages, campaign material and tips. You also use those lesson packages. What does such a lesson look like for you?
“I teach car mechanics, and there are students who come to school with clogs and sit in class with dirty hands. So I have to connect with their perception of the world: it has to be cooler, and it has to be about garages. I adapt the statements that the COC provides to start a discussion. To, for example: ‘I would not hire a homosexual person in my garage’. And then we talk about that.
“My students are future employers and employees. They should learn something about the pain and sorrow of discrimination in the lessons. I hope that I send students into society who will employ all employees. Who do not discriminate when a male wears one.”
Does your approach work?
“In my classrooms, more and more students can do this without being judged by other students. Especially in the second year, where they have already had lessons from me. Last year I handed out condoms in a lesson about safe sex. A boy then asked whether gay boys don’t need a different kind of condoms. And that’s right. We had a nice discussion about that.”
Also read
Attention for Purple Friday is growing: ‘Reading about people who were born in the wrong body? We don’t do that’
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