Not sure if you remember me, I'm the person you kindly met for lunch in South Ken and advised about working on Muslims in France. I'm sorry to have to tell you that my plans in this regard have had to be shelved owing to my dept's failure to find anyone to supervise me on the French side. I am now working only on British Muslims, but I am keeping up both my French language skills and my interest in North Africans in France.
I am almost certain that there are no restrictions on Muslim teachers in state schools in Britain wearing hijab. I have never heard of this being raised as an issue either in the media or in scholarly discussion. I expect you will get replies via Socrel from people who know more than me, but I am sure that if there were rules about it I would have heard of it, and I have not. I am on the mailing lists of several Muslim organisations who talk a lot about problems in the sphere of education, but I have never seen this particular problem mentioned. There are some issues about observance of Ramadan by pupils (mainly their parents wanting them to be excused from games and swimming lesson when they are fasting), and there is always a problem about pupils taking days off for Eid when the school does not make this an official holiday. Apart from that, the main concern is simply the widespread under-achievement by Muslim pupils, and disagreements about the reasons for this.
Elaine Housby
-----Original Message-----
From: Lina Liederman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Fri 28/11/2003 12:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: (no subject)
I am urgently trying to find out for my research (a comparative study of religious expression by Muslim pupils in France and England) whether there are any regulations that forbid Muslim teachers from wearing the hidjab, while teaching in the classroom, in state schools. I know that the wearing of the hidjab by pupils is accepted (unlike France) but I am not sure what the status is for Muslim teachers.
Does anyone know the answer or where/how I could find out? Any suggestions will be much appreciated.
Thank you.
Lina Molokotos Liederman
Centre for European Studies/Univ. of Exeter
GSRL/EPHE, Paris, France
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