EsinIslam Muslim World Headline Stories
01 December 2017By Sajeda Momin, Al
Arabiya
Muslim women's dress has again become a talking point in the UK, this time the
focus is on girls wearing hijab to primary schools. Girls under the age of 11
who wear a hijab to school will be asked by inspectors whether they are doing
it of their own free will or they are being forced by their parents.
Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools and head of Office of
Standards in Education known as Ofsted who made the announcement said schools
could be in breach of Britain's equality laws if they only required girls to
wear religious garments. But more importantly Spielman claimed that making
primary school children wear a hijab could be seen as ‘sexualizing' them at a
young age.
A matter of choice?
"While respecting parents' choice to bring up their children according to
their cultural norms, creating an environment where primary school children
are expected to wear the hijab could be interpreted as sexualization of young
girls," said Spielman. "In seeking to address these concerns inspectors will
talk to girls who wear such garments to ascertain why they do so in the
school," she added.
Britain's school system is split into two with children between the ages of 5
to 11 going to a primary school, and 11-16 going to a secondary school. Going
to school up to the age of 16 is compulsory for all children. Uniforms are
also compulsory in all schools.
As Britain became a multi-cultural society in the 1980s, schools began to
allow concessions for dress demanded by various religious dictates, like
allowing girls to cover their legs by wearing trousers instead of skirts,
letting Jewish and Sikh boys wear head coverings dictated by their religions
and so on. Some schools in areas with large Muslim populations also began to
allow girls to wear a hijab as part of the uniform.
Uniform policy
The decision to quiz girls about their hijabs came in the wake of a survey
carried out by The Sunday Times newspaper which found that 18% of the 800
primary schools in England list hijab as part of their uniform policy, albeit
as an optional item.
Some Muslim rights campaigners have gone a step further than Spielman and
asked for hijabs to be banned in primary schools arguing that they are usually
only worn by young women after they puberty and are not obligatory on primary
school girls. "In an Islamic context, the hijab is commonly understood as
being for females after they reach the age of puberty. There are very few
Muslims who would say a child should be covered," said Amina Lone, a Muslim
women's rights campaigner and former Labour parliamentary candidate.
Harun Khan, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, hit out at the
decision arguing calling it discriminatory. "It sends a clear message to all
British women who adopt a hijab that they are second-class citizens, that
while they are free to wear the headscarf, the establishment would prefer that
they did not," said Khan.
He also pointed out that many British Muslim women who chose to wear a hijab
have done extremely well in education and are breaking glass ceilings in all
fields. "It is disappointing that this is becoming policy without even
engaging with a diverse set of mainstream Muslim voices," added Khan.
Interestingly, a bishop of the Church of England has come out in support of
allowing primary school girls to wear hijabs if they wanted to. "It may just
be a case of young girls simply wanting to look like their mothers," said Toby
Howarth, Bishop of Bradford, a town which has a large Muslim population. "This
is a matter of religious identity, not sexualization, and the British policy
should be not to make a big deal of it, but simply say that you have to wear
the right colour that goes with the school uniform," added Howarth.
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