Free Republic

School sacks woman after veil row  Ms Azmi's lawyers said they were unaware of the decision to sack her A Muslim classroom assistant suspended by a school for wearing a veil in lessons has been sacked.Aishah Azmi, 23, was asked to remove the veil after the Church of England school in Dewsbury, West Yorks, said pupils found it hard to understand her. Last month, an employment tribunal ruled Mrs Azmi had not been discriminated against, but awarded her £1,100 for "injury to feelings". Kirklees Council confirmed the teaching assistant had been dismissed. A spokesman said a staffing dismissals committee...

Not long ago in the hospital in which I once worked, a young male nurse was asked by the administration to remove the ironmongery with which he had recently adorned his face and ears. He was outraged by this assault on his inalienable right to mutilate himself in any way that he chose, which he believed to be narrow-minded. He was, after all, the owner of his face and ears in fee simple; they were his to dispose of as he saw fit. As it happens, he was a decent and dedicated young man, albeit one with the bad taste...

THE Muslim teacher who insisted on wearing a veil in class has been following a fatwa issued personally to her by a Islamic cleric belonging to a hardline sect. Aishah Azmi found herself in the middle of a national row about integration when she took her school to an employment tribunal after it suspended her for refusing to remove the veil in class. Tony Blair joined the debate about the wearing of veils — opened by Jack Straw, the Commons leader — and supported the school’s actions. Azmi, 24, has maintained that her decision to wear the veil was driven...