House of Lords to Review Human Rights Concerns in Jilbab Ruling

February 6, 2006

Source: The Guardian/Press Association

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-5597020,00.html

On February 6, 2006 Press Association reported, "The case of the Muslim schoolgirl who won the right to wear a head-to-toe dress in class returns to the legal spotlight as part of a test case appeal in the House of Lords. In March last year, the Court of Appeal ruled that Shabina Begum was unlawfully excluded from Denbigh High School in Luton, Beds, when she was sent home to change out of her traditional jilbab into acceptable school uniform... The award-winning school became successful under the headship of Yasmin Bevan, who was born into a Bengali Muslim family and grew up in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh before coming to Britain. Ms Bevan wanted her school to provide an environment in which the children could learn and live together in harmony and believed that a school uniform promoted a sense of community identity. Girls could wear a skirt, trousers or a shalwar kameez and were permitted to wear headscarves which complied with school uniform requirements. But Miss Begum believed that, for a Muslim woman who has started to menstruate, the kameez did not comply with the strict requirements of her religion."