A Muslim mother has launched legal action against her daughter’s school, after being told she could not wear a face veil on its premises.
Rachida Serroukh, 37, a single mother of three daughters, has begun a discrimination test case against the prestigious Holland Park school, dubbed the “socialist Eton”, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea after she was told she would not be allowed to wear a face veil at the school.
Serroukh, a devout Muslim who has worn a face veil for the past 14 years, was delighted when her 11-year-old daughter was offered a place at the school. Not only was it across the road from where they lived, Serroukh – who was born in Ladbroke Grove – had studied there, achieving good grades.
But when she attended an evening for parents of new pupils at the school on 13 June, she was shocked to be challenged over her decision to wear a face veil….She was taken into a room and told it was the school’s policy not to allow face veils on school premises.
She had already been surprised, she added, that at the welcome event for about 200 parents – including five or six who were identifiably Muslim – the head teacher said in his speech that the school was secular and did not offer prayer rooms “although it showed video footage of the school choir singing in a church”.
At first Serroukh thought that the teacher who raised the veil issue had misunderstood and thought her daughter would be attending school in a face veil. “I explained clearly that my daughter wears a headscarf and would not be coming to school in a face veil. Then I realised she was talking about me not my daughter.”
Serroukh asked several times to see the school policy banning visitors from wearing a face veil, as she was aware that a friend who also wore a similar veil had been attending school events for five years without encountering any problems.
“It has not been necessary to date for the school to have this requirement stated in written policy,” wrote Wilson. “Given the concerns you have raised, we are now considering a written amendment to our health and safety policy to include this specific requirement and will follow the normal protocol of seeking the approval of the governing body.”
Replying on 12 July, Serroukh wrote: “How are you able to justify banning the face veil for all which come onto school grounds? I had shown my face prior to coming onto school grounds therefore security cannot have been a cause for concern.”
The following day, Wilson said it was a health and safety issue to be able to identify all of those on the school site, adding: “We would wish to reiterate that no offence was intended when Mrs … met with you to discuss the situation on the evening of the welcome interviews and it was the school’s intention to provide clarity and transparency.”
Her solicitor, Attiq Malik of Liberty Law Solicitors, said the firm had drafted a letter to the school because it was a “straightforward” test case of discrimination on the grounds of religion. “The government constantly talks about British values. To me, those values include diversity and multiculturalism. If a school in London is doing this, what might be happening elsewhere?”
The school has not yet responded to repeated requests to comment; Kensington and Chelsea referred enquiries to the school. But in Wilson’s 13 July email, he referred to Serroukh’s account of the meeting with the teacher during the parents’ welcome evening, saying “we believe [it] to be factually inaccurate”.
Holland Park School is a flagship academy which has been dubbed both the ‘socialist Eton’ and the ‘Eton of comprehensives’. Housed in a space-age steel and glass building, it is also known as Britain’s most expensive comprehensive school after an £80million refurbishment.
Among (the facilities) are unisex lavatories with no main door fitted to deter bullying, (denying children, especially shy ones, privacy doesn’t deter bullying. Discipline and moral teaching are more effective) a glass-clad open-plan library and the 25m (82ft) basement pool.
The ‘socialist Eton’ name came from when it attracted the local Labour elite who did not want to compromise their principles by using private education.
Tony Benn sent his children there (include MP Hilary Benn) and it used to be a mecca for the Left-wing, but it has been reborn as a leading academy – with decent academic results. Notable former pupils at Holland Park (are) Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston and comic Omid Djalili
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One Response
This is a typical case of Islamic bullyism. Schools, by definition, are public spaces and institutions and there are laws in many European countries forbidding people from wearing masks. There is no law in Islam requiring women to wear covers over their faces. The real problem is the Muslims’ inability and unwillingness to integrate into democratic societies. They understand democracy only in terms of we, as majority, are obliged to comply according to their will while in reality it’s them who, as a minority, should comply with the majority.