Random Variable

Photographer and friend Richard Miller sent this by email:

Been asking people at work about how they feel about Muslim girls not being allowed to wear their veils in school..
can you supply me with your opinions/info on this, as I’m getting mainly “this is our country, abide by our rules” reactions.

Richard’s brother, Jamie (who really ought to get a blog), justifiably quotes UN Human Rights Article 18:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

to which one of Rich’s colleagues replied:

I like what you said, but what about communication?

(he refers to the ‘fact’ that 80% of all communication is non-verbal)

What if a child has aspergers? Non verbal communication isn’t going to work in that case, so the teacher must find alternative approaches. In this case, the veil may be treated as an Special Educational Need.
Its the teachers problem if they can’t communicate, though I would try to find out why she is wearing the veil. I would also teach a unit of work on cultural and religious differences, making clear that the veil is a result of a specific cultural mode of religious expression - hinting that there isn’t a compulsion to wear it in most traditional Islamic or more liberal Islamic cultures.

So I would suggest to not restrict negative freedoms (i.e. Freedom from interference) by forbidding her from wearing it, but would try to improve effective freedom (with all the moral implications that entails).

William Davies seems rather peeved at a Guardian journalist, and is worth a read. I was drawn to the statement at the bottom of the Guardian article which said:

In Britain the controversy has focused on the niqab or face veil. Teaching assistant Aishah Azmi was fired for refusing to remove it in November, while earlier Shabina Begum, 17, lost a legal battle to wear the jilbab, a full-length garment including headscarf, to school. In the Netherlands, full-length burkas are banned in some schools and headscarves can be banned under certain circumstances. In France, “conspicuous” religious symbols are banned in schools. Several German states have banned hijabs among pupils.

They don’t make clear that hijab is not even the face covering, it’s the headscarf in its entirety.