The Daily Mail explains that young Muslimas must be entirely covered if attending Islamic schools:
Muslim schools all over Britain are forcing female pupils as young as 11 to wear burkas, it emerged today. Institutions say that they are 'strict' on uniforms for their children because full-face veils are the 'desired dress code of a Muslim female'.
The Madani Girls School in Tower Hamlets, East London, requires all its pupils wear a black burka and a long black coat outside. On its website, its describes its uniform policy as 'strict' and as supporting the 'desired dress code of a Muslim female.' It continues: 'The present uniform conforms to the Islamic Code of dressing and must be adhered to at all times both within the school and dismissal at the end of the day.'The school does not allow any of its 300 pupils to wear any form of makeup or jewellery.
The Ayesha Siddiqa Girls School in Southall, West London, also insists pupils wear a navy blue burka or a jilbab, which does not cover the face. On its website, the school says its is 'not willing to compromise on any issues regarding uniform'.
Many other Muslim schools - including around a dozen state-funded schools - require female pupils to cover their hair.Meanwhile the topic of wearing veils in school has dominated headlines in recent weeks after Birmingham Metropolitan College was made to retract a policy which forced pupils to remove veils while on the premises so they can be identified.
Home Office Minister Jeremy Browne has called for a national debate on whether the state should step in to prevent young women having the veil imposed upon them.
But Home Secretary Theresa May has said it is for women to 'make a choice' about what clothes they wear, including veils, although there will be some circumstances when it will be necessary to ask for them to be removed.
These schools are still the choice of the parents involved, although state-funding mandates that the schools admit quotas of non-Muslim students as well (who must also abide by the uniform rule, which makes sense). Still, it is the wisdom of such a draconian approach to modesty that should be discussed by the wider community -- because there are the regions around the world where shari'a has been established that demand that every woman be covered, for example Indonesia:
Much has been achieved since 1998 through democratic reform, but the outcomes have not all been positive. The decentralisation of political power under regional autonomy has allowed local and provincial governments to bring in regulations that force women to veil. In Aceh, for example, female dress has been among the most strictly enforced regulations since the introduction of syariah (Islamic law) in 2001. Syariah police, army officers, local Islamic and student groups have all played a part in ensuring that Acehnese women abide by the new dress codes. Women have been arrested, charged — and even had their hair cut off — for being caught in public without the veil.
Governments in West Sumatra, West Java, Banten and South Sulawesi have followed in the steps of Aceh with the introduction of by-laws enforcing the jilbab, supported by local Islamic groups and political leaders. The city of Padang has introduced Islamic by-laws that require high school students to learn how to read the Qur’an; force city employees to contribute part of their salary as zakat (alms); and require female students in state schools and civil servants — regardless of their religious persuasion — to wear the jilbab.
The difficulty comes when society accepts the premise that women safeguard their chastity by covering themselves, because the corollary follows: uncovered women are singularly responsible for immorality.
An Islamic mufti in Copenhagen, Shahid Mehdi, has sparked political outcry from the left-wing Unity List and right-wing Danish People’s Party, after stating in a televised interview that women who do not wear headscarves are “asking for rape.”
“Women are not entitled to respect when they walk around without a Hijab. They are to blame for it when they are attacked,” Imam Shahid Mehdi said.
“All the crimes that occur against women is because they are not covered. When they are not covered, you have no respect for them. ”
“She disobeys her master, there are two places in the Qur’an has ordered her to cover themselves (…) Women make a clean society dirty when they walk around without a Hijab. They are not entitled to respect and are not valuable as those who wear a Hijab.
This means that the men are not responsible for their own self-control, but are obliged to treat women badly when they do not remove all temptation. This will be the thinking of all who attend such schools and who are raised to expect women to conform to this standard. In such settings, temptation is not skimpy clothing or revealing their femininity, but simply showing face or skin.
The answer is not to hide women, nor to place undue burdens on them. Society should be built on mutual respect: women should consider modesty--in clothing, words, and actions--and men should honour and respect all women for their inherent dignity. Virtue, as always, lies in the middle--never the extremes.
[the above image shows Christian schoolgirls in Indonesia, who must conform to Muslim standards]
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