Schools given powers to ban face veil
THE education secretary Alan Johnson will announce today that under a new uniform policy headteachers can ban children from wearing the niqab on "safety, security and teaching" grounds and that effective teaching must be paramount, coming ahead of the tolerance of religious and cultural beliefs of children.
The guidance follows the case of a 12-year-old girl who lost a legal battle to wear one in lessons.
She claimed that her human rights were being abused when she was banned from wearing it in her Buckinghamshire school. The school argued the veil made communication between teachers and pupils difficult and thus hampered learning.
Some tabloids are having a field day with this news claiming that it will effects thousands of Muslims girl - in practice very few Muslim girls wear the face veil and the full robe and the Department of Education has stressed this is not a blanket ban on veils at schools, and any decision on uniform policy was a matter for individual headteachers.
This must be made clear to Muslims parents reading headlines in today papers. Some people may feel it is an infringement on their freedom - this includes the freedom to express their religious beliefs at school.
But if a veiled student in a science class was using a bunsen burner for example - it can easily set light to the veil thus putting the student in danger- in this situation if a teacher asks the student to take it off for her own safety - is the teacher wrong in her request where she sees there could be a hazard?
There are many practical issues facing headteachers at schools, many do not want to offend and want to get the best out of their students, at the end of the day a decision to ban a student from wearing the veil will not and should not be taken lightly by any headteacher. The guidance is not there to be exploited by any means. Devout Muslims girls should have the right to wear the face veil just as much as a Sikh boy has the right to wear a turban, but where it may cause danger to the child's safety for example, the guidance is there to help teachers make a correct decision after consulting the parents.
One teacher at a Bradford school told me this morning that the guidelines were welcomed by teachers but that did not mean girls all over the UK were going to be told to take off the face veil off.
She said: "The guidelines are there so we know what to do when a situation arises if we are faced with a student who we think whose learning is being hampered because of her face veil.
"Our main concern in school is safety - and that includes safety for all students.
"This will not effect girls who wear the hijab. As a teacher I have never had problems with girls wearing the hijab and I don't know of any teacher who has.
"But in reality girls who choose to wear the face veil is in the minority and I don't think it's an issue that many headteachers will be faced with."
Comments
I think the guidelines should be welcomed. It's ridiculous that a 12-year-old girl challenged her school because she thinks her human rights had been violated. What does a 12-year-old living in the UK know about human rights violations, she should go and see what's happening in places like Darfur, Iraq, Palestine to understand human rights issues!
Sorry to say this, I am a Muslim woman who has two teenage daughters at school who wear the hijab. But there is no law in our religion saying a girl should cover her face in school - and from what? Her teachers who are there to help her study in the first place!
If a teacher thinks the veil is affecting a child's studies or if there are any security or safety reasons the teacher should ask the student to take the veil off - i don't even think there should have been guidelines in the first place to tell students what to do - its common sense!
Posted by: Noor | March 20, 2007 11:25 AM
Political correctness gone mad!
Whatever next - ban Muslim kids from going to school altogether - they have a right to wear what they want whenever they want
Posted by: Ahmed | March 20, 2007 02:24 PM
i think its a right desicion as its pretty clear that nobody is trying to infringe undue authority over religion, the school is just trying to protect its students... and muslim or anything else it doesn't matter because at the end of the day a school is a place of learning, a place where young people experiment and find out about the world outside!
and may i just ask- why in this siteis there so much segregation anyway?
its like people are putting muslims on one side and world (or hell-fire) on the other!
why don't you all just look at everyone as people?!
look i'm not a muslim but i've go tfriends who are- some who wear the hijab, some who don't! and seriously my christianity and their muslimness(?) never came under any scrutiny ever, i think; besides we have a lot of meaningful discusions about aur different worlds!
i guess that comes from being cultured and educated- so seriously you guys; some of you are just too extreme and bent in your own ways, stubornly refusing to see practicality or the voice of reason!
open your eyes and see- is it better to have your daughters and sisters wear the niqab or live, learn and lead responsible lives?
Posted by: preeti | March 27, 2007 08:57 AM
they'd rather little kids wear nothing so the peado teachers can perv on them.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 31, 2007 10:47 PM
Shelina Begum stop posting these stories, you know they are causing conflict for no reason.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 31, 2007 10:48 PM
WHEN WILL WE WAKE UP??
POOR OLD MUSLIMS - THEY GET INSULTED - WE GET BEHEADED
The Pope says that jihad violence is against God's nature, and officials fear that in response, Muslims enraged by this insult will commit... jihad violence.
A. Muslims murder 3,000 innocents in New York and..... expect no criticism.
B. Muslims murder 202 tourists in Bali and.................... expect no criticism.
C. Muslims murder 333 schoolchildren and their teachers in Beslan and............... expect no criticism.
D. Muslims murder 292 innocents, mainly Kenyans and Tanzanians at two US Embassies.......... and expect no criticism.
E. Muslims murder 241 US and 58 French peacekeepers in Beirut and.............expect no criticism.
F. Muslims fire 4,000 Katyusha rockets into Northern Israel killing over 50 innocent civilians and.................. expect no criticism.
G. Muslims murder 52 in London and 191 in Madrid and.....................expect no criticism.
H. Muslims murder 200 in Mumbai and................ expect no criticism.
I. Muslims behead Western hostages in Iraq , Buddhist monks in Thailand and Christian schoolgirl s in Indonesia and.............. expect no criticism.
J. Muslims murder 500,000 in Darfur and................. expect no criticism.
K. Muslims regard Jews as 'sons of pigs and monkeys', and vow to nuke Israel and................... expect no criticism.
L. Muslims force women to wear hideous sacks, stone to death women for getting raped and for leaving the home unescorted, engage in honor killings of sisters and daughters for unapproved dating, and.................. expect no criticism.
M. Muslims danced in the streets and handed out sweets to their kids to celebrate the 9/11 atrocity, and................... still expected no criticism.
N. Since 9/11 Muslims have killed over 26,000 and wounded over 50,000 in terrorist attacks worldwide since 9/11 and...................expect no criticism.
O. Since 9/11 Muslims have committed terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Chad, Chechnya, Dagestan, Denmark, East Timor, Egypt, England, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ingushetia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Jordan-Iraq, Kabardino-Balkans, Kenya, Kosovo,Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Gaza-Palestinian Authority, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Somalia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan , Syria , Tajikistan, Thailand , Tunisia , Turkey , United Arab Emirates, United Arab Republic , United States , Uzbekistan and Yemen, and......................... STILL expect no criticism.
P. Muslims have carried out over 5,800 fatal terrorist atrocities since 9/11 and countless thousands since Islamic conquest began in 623 AD and expect no criticism.
Q. But if a Pope dares to tell the truth about Islam or Danes publish cartoons about Mohammed, then let the outpourings of Islamic hate and outrage begin.
R. And, by some twisted reach of logic, the arrogant bastards demand the Pope issue an apology.
Keep this one going...
And they have the bloody hide to say we Australians are racist toward them............HELLO!!!!!!!
Send every last one of them to where they came from !
Posted by: Christian P. | April 18, 2007 02:52 PM
Peace people
We love you
Posted by: HelloWorld | April 28, 2007 12:52 PM
I personally believe that in the debate of whether children should be allowed to wear their clothes of their religious belief in school, that we should take on the French initive and BAN everything.
The idea of the school uniform in the very first instance was so that it made all pupils equal i.e. you couldn't tell who was a child from a rich family and who was a child from a poor family. I perosnally believe that this sums up the whole debate, all children should be equal in school, therefore have nothing at all to indicate what religious beliefs a child has i.e. no christian crosses round necks, no muslim veils, no jewish skull caps etc etc.
Posted by: Chris | June 1, 2007 10:32 AM
Listen “Noor” I bet you don’t even know what is the meaning of your name, do you actually understand Islam? Because according to the information I got from your fellow Muslims that to get noor or light you must wear a veil in front of a stranger.
(But if a veiled student in a science class was using a Bunsen burner for example - it can easily set light to the veil thus putting the student in danger- in this situation if a teacher asks the student to take it off for her own safety) That is reasonable, but when you people are making a fuss out of nothing, then there you get the problems.
According to "Chris" there is no difference between his girl friend and his sisters who he sleeps with.
I mean as a Christians/Muslims/jews they have every right to practice their religions, who the hell are you and the French to say everyone should look same.
Isn't this something Hitler wanted to see?
Isn't this something Hitler wanted to see?
Isn't this something Hitler wanted to see?
Posted by: John Edward | August 22, 2007 04:49 PM
i think that muslims/jews and christians should practice there religion everywhere including school, in some cases yes they would need to be patient and understand but not to ban there religious belifs fully...
Posted by: lil_palestinian | June 18, 2008 07:17 AM