Thursday, March 03, 2005

Well I guess they will arrive at school dressed to Kill as they say


Female muslim Killer

Girl wins religious dress case
From correspondents in London
March 02, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12426251-23109,00.html

A MUSLIM girl in Britain today won a lengthy legal battle against her school, which had banned her from wearing traditional body-concealing Islamic dress while in class.
In a case with potentially far-reaching implications, the High Court in London said Shabina Begum, 15, had been unfairly excluded from the school for wearing the garment known as the jilbab.
Denbigh High School in Luton, north of London, had also denied Begum - who was represented by Cherie Booth, the lawyer wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair - the right to practise her religious beliefs, judges ruled.
In a legal battle which closely echoes the recent controversy over a French government decision to ban "conspicuous" religious insignia such as Islamic headscarves in schools, the High Court initially ruled against Begun in June last year.
However, presiding judge Lord Justice Henry Brooke reversed this judgment today and called for the Department of Education to advise schools on how to comply with their obligations under the Human Rights Act.
The court was told Begum, an academically strong pupil of Bangladeshi origin who hoped to become a doctor, had previously worn a shalwar kameez, a traditional South Asian form of attire comprising trousers under a dress-length tunic.
But having developed a deepening interest in Islam, Begum arrived at the start of the academic year in September 2002 wearing a jilbab.
She was told to go home and change, but refused.
Denbigh School, where around 80 per cent of pupils are Muslim, argued that female Islamic pupils had a wide choice of other traditional clothing they could wear, including skirts, trousers or a shalwar kameez.
Only Begum had insisted on wearing the jilbab - which the school said posed a potential safety risk due to its length - and as such had effectively chosen to stay away, the school's lawyers said.
During an appeal in December, prominent civil rights lawyer Booth argued that the girl's rights had been infringed.
"Her rights to manifest her religious beliefs should be respected," said Ms Booth, who uses her maiden name in work.
"I say our policy is to respect diversity, and it is not for the public authority to judge which beliefs are more valid than others," she said.

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