29 June 2009

Catholic school bars Muslim teacher who refused to remove face veil so staff could identify her

A Muslim teacher was barred from visiting a Catholic college after refusing to remove her full-face veil so staff could identify her.

Now the school may face a claim of religious discrimination after the woman left rather than agreeing to reveal her face. The teacher, who works at an Islamic school, was attending an open day at the sixth form college along with two teenage pupils, all of them wearing veils which left only their eyes visible. They were asked to remove them as it was against the college policy - but while the girls complied, their teacher refused.

The incident, which happened in Jack Straw's Blackburn constituency, comes as the issue of the full-face veil is once again at the centre of debate, and could see the school plunged into a court battle. [MailOnline] Read more