Muslim Pupil Fights Dress Ban In Court (UK)

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 2-12-2004 | Sean O'Neill

[blam]

Muslim pupil fights dress ban in court

By Sean O'Neill
(Filed: 12/02/2004)

A muslim girl has been banned from classes for more than a year because her head teacher refuses to allow her to wear orthodox religious dress.

Shabina Begum, 15, claims she has been effectively excluded from Denbigh High School, Luton, Beds, because she wants to wear a jilbab - a loose ankle-length garment.

Shabina Begum in the jilbab banned in class

Shabina, who wants to follow a medical career, has been educating herself at home and with the help of friends since September 2002.

The school, a 1,000-pupil comprehensive where the majority of pupils are Asian, denies discrimination. A spokesman insisted that Shabina had not been excluded. "It is the pupil who has chosen to absent herself."

After more than a year of failed negotiations, lawyers for Shabina will lodge papers at the High Court today seeking a judicial review.

The case threatens to inflame tensions in Luton where the extremist group al-Muhajiroun has been picketing Icknield High School because it bans Muslim girls from wearing headscarves.

The situation has echoes of the controversy in France where MPs have voted overwhelmingly to ban the wearing of religious symbols in schools - a law change prompted by disputes over Muslim girls' headscarves.

Shabina's case is being brought by lawyers from the Children's Legal Centre at the University of Essex who say the school has unlawfully excluded her. They also claim that the ban breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.

Like other Muslim girls at the school, Shabina wore a shalwar kameez - a loose tunic and trousers - until the summer of 2002. On returning to school that September, she asked to wear the jilbab.

More than 90 per cent of pupils at Denbigh High are from Asian families.

Luton borough council, the education authority, said it would fight the case. "The school consulted widely and the advice was that the dress code satisfied Islamic requirements," a spokesman said.

[SunStar]

A muslim girl has been banned from classes for more than a year because her head teacher refuses to allow her to wear orthodox religious dress.

No, she was banned from wearing orthodox religious dress. Get it right! The media is all bias, all the time!

[SunStar]

(Though the Telegraph is assumed to be "conservative", they are still biased in this article.)

[steplock]

The problem is the dress is too modest for these whack-jobs in the UK!

[swarthyguy]

>>Shabina wore a shalwar kameez - a loose tunic and trousers - until the summer of 2002. On returning to school that September, she asked to wear the jilbab.

What caused the change?
THis is an ideological ruse using religion to take advantage of secular liberties to make a political point.

She does wear a traditional dress. There's no issue except islami agitprop.

The communists were rubes compared to these guys.

[blam]

"The communists were rubes compared to these guys."

Yup, I'm beginning to realize that.

[swarthyguy]

Spread the word. Beware, you'll get the skunk at the garden party reactions. People, naturally enough, just don't and haven't wanted to believe the sheer level of hate, patience and fanatical motivation exhibited by the hardcore islamis.

Yup, they'll say, she's only a schoolgirl. And look how they motivated her. She's not forced to wear pants or skirts. She has the basic freedom to wear the subcontinent's traditional garb to school.

You allow one girl to do this and the intimidation of other girls with no desire to cover their hair begins.

And then the next dumb thing.