UK: Schoolgirl loses veil ban challenge

Girl with niqab

A 12-year-old Muslim girl, who challenged her school’s ban on wearing the niqab, a full-face veil, has lost her case in the High Court. The court rejected her lawyer’s argument that the ban violated her human rights.

The unnamed girl, protected by anonymity order, started wearing niqab in last September on reaching puberty, when her school told her that it was not acceptable because the teachers believed it would make communication and learning difficult. The niqab covers all of the face except the eyes. She was the only one of 120 Muslims attending the 1,300-students girl school in Buckinghamshire, who insisted on wearing the niqab when in the presence of male teachers or other male personal, while 60 girls use to wear the hijab scarf leaving the face free.

Her lawyer told the court that his client and her parents had the “legitimate expectation” that she would be allowed to wear the niqab as three of her elder sisters had attended the same school – and all wore the niqab. The ban, he argued, breached her right to freedom of "thought, conscience and religion" as guaranteed under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The school won the support of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford, which agreed that not all Muslims agree with the wearing of the niqab.

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