While there is a tremendous pressure on Scotland Yard to prosecute demonstrators against the publishers of cartoons satirical of the Prophet, some of whom demanded murder of those editors and broadcasters who printed and aired them, 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 a test case appeal in the House of Lords.
The issue whether Muslim girl pupils wearing hijab (the head cover) should be banned from attending classes is also very sensitive and specially at the moment when the community is in turmoil over the cartoons.
The Court of Appeal in an appeal petition had held 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.
Now, five Law Lords are being asked to review the human rights implications of Shabina's case, along with a dispute over whether another teenager, Abdul Hakim Ali, is entitled to damages for being excluded from Lord Grey School in Bletchley, Bucks, after he was suspected of involvement in a classroom fire. The school was apparently following the French who banned students from wearing any religious symbol.
Shabina, 17, represented by Cherie Booth QC, had taken her school's head teacher and governors to court for denying her the "right to education and to manifest her religious beliefs" under the Human Rights Act. It was then said that some radical groups had instigated her.
{{/usCountry}}Shabina, 17, represented by Cherie Booth QC, had taken her school's head teacher and governors to court for denying her the "right to education and to manifest her religious beliefs" under the Human Rights Act. It was then said that some radical groups had instigated her.
{{/usCountry}}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.
Bevan argued that she 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.
The judge ruled that "her freedom to manifest her religion or belief in public was being limited.