Catholic school bars Muslim teacher who refused to remove face veil so staff could identify her

Controversy: A niqab leaves only eyes visible

No one should be allowed to walk into a school with their face covered. Most of these women are originally from Pakistan or Bangladesh and up until 5 years ago or so - no one really dressed this way.

A Muslim teacher was barred from a Roman Catholic college after refusing to remove her full-face veil so staff could identify her.

The woman, who works at an Islamic school, opted to leave instead and now the college could face a claim of religious discrimination.

The teacher was at an open day at the sixth-form college with two female pupils, all of them wearing niqabs showing only their eyes.

After they were asked to remove them to comply with college policy, the girls, thought to be aged 15, agreed but their teacher refused and left.

The incident in Justice Secretary Jack Straw's Blackburn constituency comes the week after French president Nicolas Sarkozy called for the all-enveloping burkha to be banned.

He called it a sign of 'subservience and debasement' rather than of religion. Yesterday, David Cameron joined the debate.

The Conservative leader said that while women should be free to wear burkhas and niqabs, schools were a different matter.

'You can't wear the full garb and be an effective teacher,' he said. In 2006, Mr Straw said that veils could make community relations harder as they were a 'visible statement of separation and difference'.

Earlier this year, another Catholic college in his constituency, Our Lady and St John, turned away a Muslim mother from a parents' evening as she was wearing a full-face veil.

The latest incident, at St Mary's College, is said to have left the visiting teacher 'shocked and upset'.

At both colleges, any items which obscure the face, including crash helmets, are barred as the wearers cannot be identified. The rule also applies to Muslim staff and pupils as wearing veils would hamper their ability to communicate.

Governors at the 250-pupil Islamiya Girls High School, where the teacher works, are considering lodging a formal complaint. A source said: 'We have a very good relationship with St Mary's and the parents respect the education it provides.

'But this is the first we've heard of this policy – surely the onus was on them to inform us?' Yesterday, local Muslims criticised the extension of the ban to visitors.

Abdul Hamid Qureshi, the chairman of Lancashire Council of Mosques, said: 'We understand when they say it isn't conducive to learning for pupils and teachers to wear the niqab.

'But she was only visiting as part of an open day, she wasn’t teaching
a class.

‘Women who wear the niqab think that to remove it in front of men is being disobedient to God’s will, so they won’t.

‘To ask mothers and other visitors to take off their veils means they will stay away.’

But David Green, director of the think-tank Civitas, said: ‘The college is absolutely right.

‘Most Muslims would say it isn’t a religious obligation to cover the face, so if you do so in this country, you’re making a political stance.’

Schools have been allowed to restrict the wearing of veils after two key judgments in 2006 and 2007.

Classroom assistant Aishah Azmi and a 12-year-old girl lost their legal battles to wear veils in class.

Ministers opted against an outright ban, saying it was for individual schools and councils to decide.

Daily Mail

Muslim pupils and teacher ordered to remove veils


The party were from an Islamic school in Great Harwood, Lancs and were visiting St Mary's College in nearby Blackburn, which was staging its annual open day.

The two schoolgirls agreed to take off their niqab veils, which leave only slits for their eyes.

However, their teacher refused and was taken into an office at the sixth form college and told she would not be allowed on the premises.

St Mary's College yesterday defended the move, claiming that staff had requested that the trio remove the traditional Islamic veils because they are against the school's dress policy.

Its principal Kevin McMahon said: "At the start of one of our 'taster days' for prospective students last week, some visitors did arrive wearing the veil.

"When the policy was explained to them, all except one were willing to remove it. This lady – a member of staff at the school – refused, and opted to leave the premises."

Muslim leaders condemned the college's reaction, saying it threatened to reignite the debate over religious clothing.

Abdul Quereshi, chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques said: "I am very disappointed. "The information I have is that this was the action of one individual and now this will once again become a big issue."

[..]
The Muslim Council of Britain condemned the remarks, while Shahid Malik, the Communities Minister, said it was "not the job of government to dictate what people should or should not wear".

St Mary's is a beacon status sixth form college for 1,450 pupils aged 16 to 18.

Telgraph