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| Britain |
| British college pressured to rescind niqab ban |
| 2013-09-14 |
| A British student sparked a national debate this week when she tried to enroll for an A-level course at Birmingham’s Metropolitan College – home to 35,000 students the majority of them Asian. She was told that it was the college’s policy not to allow the niqab she was wearing because of campus security fears. On Thursday night – in the face of a huge social media campaign organised by students, a 9,000 name petition and the threat of a lunchtime demonstration - the college said it would modify its stance. The niqab is now unbanned. Depending on which side of the argument they were on, the decision to reverse the policy was called either a victory for common sense or a humiliating capitulation for the British way of life. Tory MP for Kettering Philip Hollobone said the change of heart was a matter of “shame” and made the argument for legislation banning the niqab in public more urgent. He said, "People are frightened of standing up and speaking out in this discussion because of political correctness and the intolerant reaction from Muslim groups who jump up and down with fury whenever anyone says that it makes sense for people to go around with their faces perfectly visible to everyone else which is the way human beings were created in the first place." The college’s reversal mirrored the decision of Judge Peter Murphy at Blackfriars Crown Court in London on the same day. He had backed down after initially refusing to allow a woman accused of intimidating a witness to give evidence in a trial unless she uncovered her face. Protest organiser Sabiha Mahmood a former student at the college, said the issue needed to be kept in the spotlight. She said that social network sites around the campaign had been bombarded with racist and Islamophobic comments. The issue opened up a divide in the Coalition government. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had expressed “unease” at the decision to implement a ban. Meanwhile, a spokesman for David Cameron said it was up to individual schools and colleges to set their own dress code. |
| Posted by:ryuge |