From The Guardian, with thanks to Tziona2, who comments: “What is missing from all the reports in the newspapers is what the girl’s lawyer, Yvonne Spencer, said on Channel Four news yesterday evening: the real reason the girl objects to wearing the shalwar khameez (and the reason the school approved it as uniform) is that Sikhs and Hindus also wear it. In the Dar al-Islam the authorities enforced this rule of the Dhimma by making dhimmi wear a coloured patch on their clothes, so if Miss Begum wants to distinguish herself from the kuffar as being a muslim, let her sew a patch onto her clothes. If it works one way, it works the other.” Indeed.
A 15-year-old Muslim girl yesterday lost her high court battle for the right to wear strict Islamic dress to school.
Shabina Begum has not attended Denbigh high school in Luton since September 2002 when she was sent home for turning up in a jilbab – the full-length gown worn by many Muslim women that covers all of the body except the face and hands.
Shabina’s claim that she had been “constructively excluded” from her school was dismissed by Mr Justice Bennett. He said the school’s refusal to let her wear the jilbab did not breach her right to education and freedom of religion as laid down in the European convention on human rights.
The school, a 1,000-pupil comprehensive where almost 80% of pupils are Muslim, said it had a flexible uniform policy to ensure that the religious and cultural sensitivities of its students were respected. Girls have the option of wearing trousers, skirts, or a shalwar kameez (trousers and a tunic).