Britain: Britain's final court of appeal, the law lords of the House of Lords, yesterday overturned a court ruling that a British Muslim teenager's human rights were violated when she was banned from wearing a head-to-toe Islamic dress to school.
The unanimous ruling by five law lords was greeted with relief by teachers' bodies and the Department for Education and Skills for England and Wales, which feared that upholding the ruling would throw schools' policies on uniforms into chaos.
Shabina Begum (17), argued that banning her from wearing the jilbab at Denbigh high school in Luton, Bedfordshire, north of London, breached her rights to education and to manifest her religion, as guaranteed by the European convention on human rights. She lost two years' schooling before moving to a school which allowed her to wear the religious clothing.
But the law lords said there was no right to be educated at a particular school and she could have moved earlier to a single-sex school where the garment would be unnecessary or to a school where it was permitted.
Shabina had worn the shalwar kameez (tunic and trousers) for her first two years at the school, but when she was nearly 13 she went to school in a jilbab.
Shabina said after the judgment: "Obviously I am saddened and disappointed about this, but I am quite glad it is all over and I can move on now. Even though I lost, I have made a stand."
She said she would be discussing with her lawyers whether to take the case to the European court of human rights.
Muslim groups were dismayed by the ruling. "On a matter of principle we are disappointed," said Tahir Alam, education spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, the country's largest Muslim lobby group.
"There are lots of schools across the country which allow the jilbab and this issue should have been resolved at a local level. It's unfortunate that it's gone through the courts." - (Guardian Service, Reuters)