Drive to officially back hijab in schools
- Published: 19 September 2008
GUIDELINES for the wearing of religious clothing such as the Muslim hijab in schools have yet to be agreed by the Government, despite a request for direction going back almost a year.
A group campaigning for official recognition of the hijab within all schools claimed yesterday that a number of Muslim girls were prevented from wearing the headscarf in their classrooms.
We want people to see that the hijab is not a subversion of any culture, said Mujaahid Liam Egan of the Irish Hijab Campaign yesterday.
Mr Egan and his wife Suad Beverley McKenzie, whose daughter Shekinah, 14, is allowed to wear a hijab at Gorey Community School, have held meetings with a number of politicians in a bid to get the hijab recognised by the Government.
The Department of Education yesterday said: The issue is currently being considered by officials in the department.
The family recently featured on Arabic TV news station, Al Jazeera, which filmed a report in Gorey and broadcast it in Arabic.
We want the Government to allow and protect the hijab and we want legislation that protects this, said Mr McKenzie.
While Shekinah McKenzie can wear her hijab to school, her parents say that other children have been prevented from doing so in other parts of the country.
They want guidelines put in place for all schools.
The issue sparked debate earlier this year when it emerged that Gorey Community School principal, Nicholas Sweetman, wrote to the Department of Education last October to seek guidance on the issue.
According to Mr McKenzie, who converted to Islam some years ago, integration minister Conor Lenihan consulted with 4,000-plus Irish school principals and only a handful of muslims in the last few months.
Education Minister Batt OKeeffe has also been involved in the process.
When you have ministers getting together to decide how a minority is going to integrate, then its not integration, its assimilation, said Mr McKenzie.
