Muslim girl sacked for refusing to wear a headscarf
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/10/03/muslim-girl-sacked-for-refusing-to-wear-a-headscarf-115875-22604937/
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A muslim woman was fired from her job at an estate agents because she wouldn't wear a headscarf.
Ghazala Khan, 31, was sacked by devout Muslim Masood Ghafoor after he claimed she was "not respectable" because her hair was showing.
An industrial tribunal ruled she had been the victim of sexual and religious discrimination after hearing white, non-Muslin women she worked with were not asked to wear headscarves.
Ghazala, who was awarded ?13,500 in compensation, was not told she would have to cover her hair when taken on to run Go Go Real Estate, close to her home in Leeds, in June. But within days she was left feeling "uncomfortable and intimidated" when Mr Ghafoor accused her of not having been brought up as a "good Muslim". He told her his wife and female relatives wore full veils or burkhas in public - and accused her parents of giving her too much freedom.
And he sacked her after just two weeks in the job. Ghazala told the tribunal: "He said members of the Muslim community had been gossiping and that I was not respectable.
"I found his remarks hurtful and offensive. The following day, he phoned me to say that he was terminating my employment." Ghazala was awarded the money for loss of earnings and injury to her feelings.
She told the tribunal she has worn a trouser suit at her interview for the job - and had made it clear she was a nonpractising Muslim and did not cover her hair.
British schools where girls must wear the Islamic veil
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8038820/British-schools-where-girls-must-wear-the-Islamic-veil.html
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Islamic schools have introduced uniform policies which force girls to wear the burka or a full headscarf and veil known as the niqab.
Moderate followers of Islam said yesterday that enforcement of the veil was a "dangerous precedent" and that children attending such schools were being "brainwashed".
The Sunday Telegraph has established that three UK institutions have introduced a compulsory veil policy when girls are walking to or from school. They are:
Madani Girls' School in east London;
Jamea Al Kauthar in Lancaster;
Jameah Girls' Academy in Leicester.
All three are independent, fee-paying, single-sex schools for girls aged 11 to 18. Critics warned that the spectacle of burka-clad pupils entering and leaving the schools at the start and end of the day could damage relations between Muslim and non-Muslim communities.
Ed Husain, co-director of Quilliam, the counter-extremist think-tank, said: "It is absurd that schools are enforcing this outdated ritual ? one that which sends out a damaging message that Muslims do not want to fully partake in British society.
"Although it is not the government's job to dictate how its citizens dress, it should nonetheless ensure that such schools are not bankrolled or subsidised by the British taxpayer."
He added: "The enforcing of the niqab on young girls is not a mainstream Islamic practice ? either in Britain or in most Muslim-majority countries.
"It is a desert practice which belongs to another century and another world."
Dr Taj Hargey, an imam and chairman of the Muslim Educational Trust of Oxford, said: "This is very disturbing and sets a dangerous precedent.
"It means that Muslim children are being brainwashed into thinking they must segregate and separate themselves from mainstream society.
"The use of taxpayers' money for such institutions should be absolutely opposed. The wearing of the burka or niqab is a tribal custom and these garments are not even mentioned in the Koran."
Philip Hollobone, the Tory MP who has attempted to bring in a Private Members' Bill to ban wearing of the burka in public, also condemned the schools' uniform policies.
"It is very sad in 21st century Britain that three schools are effectively forcing girls as young as 11 to hide their faces," he said.
"How on earth are these young ladies going to grow up as part of a fully integrated society if they are made to regard themselves as objects at such a young age?"
I really doubt that many Muslim women in the UK who do wear the veil or headscarf choose to purely from personal choice, in most cases they are pressured into wearing them by their muslim communities, family and friends.