Schoolgirl Wins Right to Islamic Dress

Schoolgirl Wins Right to Islamic Dress

A schoolgirl who was refused permission to wear an Islamic gown in class has claimed a "victory for all Muslims" after the British Court of Appeal ruled that she had been denied the right to manifest her religion.

Shabina Begum, 16, decided when she turned 14 to wear a jilbab, a full-length dress that conceals the shape of a woman's arms and legs. She said the insistence of Denbigh High School in Luton, that she wore uniform was the consequence of an atmosphere in which Islam had been made "a target for vilification in the name of the war on terror".

Almost 80 per cent of the pupils at the comprehensive school are Muslim. Girls can wear the shalwar kameez, a sleeveless, smock-like dress worn over tapered trousers, and an approved headscarf. However, Ms Begum believed that Islamic law required females over the age of 13 to cover their bodies completely, apart from the face and hands. The school refused to allow the jilbab in September 2002 and she lost almost two years' education.

Lords Justices Brooke, Mummery and Scott Baker ruled on Wednesday that the school had unlawfully excluded Ms Begum and unlawfully denied her the right to manifest her religion and access to appropriate education.

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The Muslim Council of Britain welcomed the ruling, but the leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain called it a victory for fundamentalism.

"The fundamentalist agenda is that we should have nothing to do with the non-Islamic world and this will have gained currency and momentum today," Ghayasuddin Siddiqui said.

Lord Justice Brooke said the school should have recognised that Miss Begum had the right to manifest her religion in public under article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

It was not clear how similar appeals to the convention might affect school dress codes in other European countries.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled last June that Turkey could ban Muslim headscarves at its universities in the interests of public order. As one of the 45-nation Council of Europe, Turkey is obliged to comply with the convention overseen by the court.