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Muslim schoolgirl loses dress code battle

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: A British Muslim schoolgirl has lost a bitter three-year-long legal battle over her insistence on wearing jilbab to the classroom as the House of Lords, in a significant verdict, ruled that the school's dress code did not amount to an interference in her right to manifest her religion.

Controversy

The case of Sabrina Begum (16), who was excluded from her school for wearing jilbab, had sparked a nationwide controversy and there was little support for her even within the Muslim community.

Ms. Begum, who preferred to forego studies for two years rather than comply with the school's dress code which she claimed interfered with her religious rights, was widely seen to have been put up to it by a fundamentalist group supported by her brother — her guardian after the deaths of her parents.

The Denbigh High School in Luton, where nearly 80 per cent of the pupils are Muslims, said its dress policy was agreed with leading Muslim organisations and took into account the cultural and religious sensitivities of its students.

In a unanimous ruling, the Lords said that the school had taken "immense pains to devise a uniform policy which respected Muslim beliefs''— and that it had done so in an "inclusive, unthreatening and competitive way''.

They said that it appeared that the school's rules on dress were "acceptable to mainstream Muslim opinion''.

The judges overturned the Appeals Court judgement last year that the school had denied Ms. Begum the right to manifest her religion.

Ms. Begum said she was "saddened and disappointed'' with the ruling. "I had to make a stand about this. Many women will not speak up about what they actually want. I still don't see why I was told to go home from school when I was just practising my religion," she said.

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