Girl, 16, banned from school for wearing hijab in Spain

[Al-khiyal]

Girl, 16, banned from school for wearing hijab in Spain

April 16, 2010 -- A 16-year-old schoolgirl has been banned from classes in Spain after refusing to remove her Islamic headscarf, re-igniting the national debate over the hijab. Najwa Malha, who was born is Spain to Moroccan immigrants, has been excluded from classes at the state-run Camilo Jose Cela School in the Madrid suburb of Pozuelo after being told that her hijab was in violation of school dress code. The decision has sparked debate in Spain where there are no clear guidelines over the wearing of Islamic headdress in state schools. The enforcement of dress codes is left up to individual school boards but previous cases of exclusion have been overturned by the state with the argument that the constitutional right to an educational overrides the school's right to determine its own policies. "I feel totally discriminated against," said Miss Malha, who said she began wearing the hijab two months ago as an expression of her religious belief. Her father, Mohamed, told Spanish newspaper El Pais that he had originally objected to his daughter wearing the hijab to school. "I asked her to reconsider [...] because I figured it would cause her problems," he said. Last November, a Muslim lawyer was ejected from Spain's national court, where she was defending a client, because she refused to remove her headscarf.

[Al-khiyal]

Spanish Catholic leaders defend use of Islamic veil

April 23, 2010 -- Spain's Roman Catholic leaders on Friday defended women's right to use an Islamic veil after a suburban Madrid high school banned a teenager from classes who refused to take off the garment, sparking a debate over the issue. Bishop Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, the spokesman of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, told a news conference that people "have the right to manifest their religion or belief" according to the Spanish constitution as long as they respect "public order". This principle is also applicable to displaying the crucifix in classrooms, he added. Late last year Spain took a first step towards banning crucifixes in schools with the approval of a parliamentary initiative calling on the government to implement a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights demanding that this be done.

Earlier this month a high school at Pozuelo de Alarcon banned 16-year-old Najwa Malha, born in Spain to Moroccan parents, from classes for violating internal regulations which bar "the use of hats and any other article of clothing that cover the head". The move angered associations representing Muslims in Spain which said they would contest the decision before Spain's Constitutional Court. They argue it interferes with the student's right to an education. Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa de la Vega sought to soften the controversy, telling a news conference following a weekly cabinet meeting that it was a "one-off problem" which posed no "social problem". Regional authorities have proposed that Malha be transfered to another high school in the area that does not ban the use of the veil.

There is no nationwide policy on the use of the Islamic headscarf in Spain, with each school allowed to decide its own rules. The issue is a relatively new one for the mainly Roman Catholic country which has seen the number of immigrants living within its borders soar from around half a million in 1996 to 5.6 million last year, out of a total population of 46 million people. Moroccans make up one of the largest immigrant communities. In 2007, a nine-year-old Moroccan girl was briefly expelled from school for wearing a traditional Islamic headscarf, or hijab.

[Al-khiyal]

Muslim headscarf sparks heated debate in Spain

Madrid, April 26, 2010 -- If a woman is free to exhibit her body, why should she not be free to cover it? The question is one among the many points that are being raised in Spain as the country debates the use of the Islamic headscarf (hijab) in schools. The case of Najwa Malha, a 16-year-old Muslim girl who was expelled from school because she refused to take her headscarf off, sparked a heated debate. The issue has been discussed in many other European countries, such as Spain's neighbouring France, which banned all religious symbols in schools. But it had largely eluded Spain so far. There have been several cases like that of Malha, but the government allowed schools to decide individually how to handle them, without defining a nationwide policy on the hijab.

The issue has become increasingly pressing as Spain's Muslim population has grown rapidly over the past decade. The country now has 1.3 million Muslims. The vast majority of them are of Moroccan origin, like Malha's family. About 60 per cent of schools in the Madrid region allow pupils to wear the hijab. Others - such as Malha's school in Pozuelo de Alarcon - ban all headgear, including the hijab and the baseball cap, which can act as an identifying sign for members of Latin American street gangs.

Malha's family on Monday announced she would leave her school, making it appear that she accepted an offer to place her in another school allowing headscarves, while the controversy raged on. Her case has sparked shows of solidarity from her fellow Muslims. Several of her schoolmates briefly put on headscarves, while an internet support forum collected hundreds of signatures. Muslim associations pledged to take the case to court, urged imams to defend the hijab in the upcoming Friday prayers, and secular intellectuals to help them prevent a politicization of the issue. Several human rights or immigrants' rights groups also sided with Malha, with Amnesty International saying people had the right to wear religious symbols without being discriminated against. "We are working for a moderate Islam, but cases like this favour radicals, who take advantage of them," said Mohammed Ali of the Spanish Federation of Religious Islamic Units (FEERI). Far-right groups also took advantage of the situation, placing anti-Islamic stickers on the gates of Malha's school.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government took a cautious stance on the issue, calling for tolerance and dialogue. The conservative opposition was slightly more critical, with some of its representatives openly criticizing the hijab as symbolizing the subjugation of women, while others called for a law on the issue. The government is preparing a legal reform to increase the rights of minority religions in predominantly Catholic Spain, but the law is not expected to deal with details such as the hijab. Even if every school will be allowed to set its own rules for the time being, Spaniards are becoming more conscious of the complexity of the hijab issue as the country grapples to come into terms with its new multicultural identity.

About 200,000 of Spain's Muslims were born in the country, but many of them feel that prejudice against them prevents them from becoming fully integrated into the general culture. Some Muslim women put on the hijab as a sign of rebellion against such a society. Some of them describe the headscarf as a feminist symbol freeing women from being viewed as sex objects. Others - such as Malha - follow their religious conviction or a family tradition, while a few bend to pressure from their fathers or boyfriends. Whatever the reasons for wearing the hijab, the woman who puts it on needs guts, as she exposes herself to constant stares and discrimination on the labour market.

If women are free to wear sexy clothes, why are they also not free to cover their bodies, many young Muslim women ask, while stressing that wearing the hijab should always be the woman's own decision. If Spain bans the hijab, it should also prohibit Catholic nuns from covering their heads, remove crucifixes from public places and stop using the Catholic liturgy at state funerals, journalist and author Javier Valenzuela argued. Those opposing the hijab, on the other hand, say European countries are over-sensitive about the rights of Muslims while Muslim countries often do not grant comparable rights to their Christian minorities. "Many people think that Islam is against women, and that is not so," concluded Fatima Elidrissi, the woman whose hijab first ignited the debate on headscarves in schools eight years ago. "But many Muslim men think so too," she added.

[Al-khiyal]

Expulsion of Muslim girl 'racist act'

April 28, 2010 -- An association for Moroccan immigrants in Spain says Camilo Jose Cela School's decision to expel a Muslim student was an "act of racism." The head of the Association of Moroccan Workers and Immigrants in Spain, Kamal Ramoini, said the group had made known its "deep disagreement with this decision." The Camilo Jose Cela board's "decision to deny Najwa Malha the right to freedom of religion and belief was an act of oppression and racism, which runs counter to Spain's constitution," the association said in a statement, calling on the country's prosecutor to take necessary measures. The state-run school in Madrid has expelled 16-year-old girl Najwa for refusing to remove her Islamic hijab. "For the past several weeks Najwa Malha cannot go to class in her school, which is contrary to her right to a basic education guaranteed by the constitution," Ramoini said. The association, meanwhile, criticized the Madrid provincial government for showing indifference towards Majwa's expulsion. Malha, born to Moroccan immigrant parents in Spain, began wearing hijab two months ago to express her religious beliefs. She says she has been deeply discriminated against under the pretext of so-called violation of dress code.

[Al-khiyal]