Spain: School ordered to accept student with veil

[Marcus Marulus]

SPAIN: SCHOOL ORDERED TO ACCEPT STUDENT WITH VEIL ***

(by Paola Del Vecchio)

(ANSAmed)

MADRID, OCTOBER 2 - The umpteenth battle of the veil in Europe has ended with the victory of Shaima, a seven-year-old Moroccan girl. The education council of the regional government of Catalonia has forced a state school in Girona to admit the young girl to participate in lessons. The girl, who refused to remove her veil, had been missing school for over a week. The mother, Noama, affirms that the decision to wear the hidjab, the scarf which leaves the face uncovered, is not due to family pressures. "Shaima did everything alone," she says in one of many interviews, "the child has grown up until last year in Morocco with the paternal grandmother, from whom she took her religious habits." The woman expressed her satisfaction for the intervention of the regional government, just when Shaimàs father "had decided to send her back to Morocco", so that she could attend school in her country of origin. Shaima, backed by her family, categorically refused to comply with the request of the school's director, Llorenc Carreras, to relinquish her veil, "incompatible with the school's internal regulations", under which "there cannot be any difference among the pupils, due to religious motives, sex, or any other reason". But the director of the regional education council, Andreu Otero, in a statement to the media, remarked "that the school's regulation cannot contradict the directions imposed by the regional government" which "forbid any discrimination for the school's attendance". While underlining that the child wears the veil of her own accord, Otero stated that "Spain is a non-confessional state" and has the duty "to tolerate and respect" the use of the Muslim veil. The case of Shaima obviously reopened in Spain the debate on the tolerance towards religious habits in school institutions, where the second generation of the community of over 600,000 Muslims who are estimated to live in the country, is present. Allowing Muslim girls to wear the veil or a long skirt during sports lessons or even to allow fasting, with the subsequent risks of hypoglycemia during Ramadan, are issues to which there is no single answer. "The competence," says Ana Planet, councillor for religious affairs at the Justice Ministry, recently remarked, "belongs to the autonomous communities, the single regions." According to Mohamed Chaib, chairman of the Foundation Pluralism and Coexistence, "our priority is that women get out of the house, learn Spanish and integrate themselves, thus we consider the issue of the veil an absurd obsession, on which it would be counterproductive to insist". "The key," he says, "is in the education in schools, not in the dress code." But the public opinion does not seem to agree: according to the on-line survey launched by El Pais on the case of little Shaima, 76% of the Spanish believe that the use of religious symbols in class should be forbidden, while 24% are in favour. (ANSAmed).

2007-10-02

[source]

[Céleste]

Those muslims living in Europe should not think such a great deal of themselves. Why should they be covered to an extent is which abnormal in western societies? People who immigrate to a country, should be grateful instead of establishing their own, foreign rules in the new country.

[Martín Zalacaín]

Well, to be honest, I see nothing wrong with muslims keeping their traditions. What sickens me is that authorities allow them to do so. It shows how weak and insecure we are.

[Menydh]

Let them cover with veils. As if that was a problem. In fact it marks them farther apart from the population.

[Kernunnos]

the more they keep themselves apart the more we will have chance to preserve our integrity and send them back home in a future.

I'm much more afraid of the "westernized" ones who try to catch our girls in discos than of the ones who want a veiled woman and a veiled daughter.

[Martín Zalacaín]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Let them cover with veils. As if that was a problem. In fact it marks them farther apart from the population.

Originally Posted by Breha

the more they keep themselves apart the more we will have chance to preserve our integrity and send them back home in a future.

I'm much more afraid of the "westernized" ones who try to catch our girls in discos than of the ones who want a veiled woman and a veiled daughter.

I agree with both of you. What makes me angry is how authorities hasten to meet their demands.