Students who wear the niqab are no longer welcome at Birmingham Met College. Dame Christine Braddock DBE the principal of Birmingham Met College said:
“Safeguarding is a priority…This needs individuals to be easily identifiable at all times when they are on college premises and this includes the removal of hoodies, hats, caps and veils so that faces are visible.”
Apparently people wear hats on their faces at Birmingham Met College – but let’s leave this quirky observation to one side for a moment.
It’s easy to understand that the college may wish to set a level of decorum and thus baseball caps, hats and hoodies may signify an element of ‘street culture’ that may not be conducive with a college. However this is not her reasoning. She claims it is to do with faces being visible. If this is true then one must ask whether a hat which has been banned covers more of the face than a hijab that has not been banned. Is this not a logical inconsistency? Not that I’m arguing for hijabs to be banned, but I’m interested in probing the logic. I have worked in a large sixth form college before, and I can tell you that most students are either looking at their phone or engrossed in discussion with their immediate circle of friends to pay too much attention to all of the faces walking around in every direction. The idea that they would be on edge because someone is wearing a face veil is quite unrealistic. Every student would have to get through security at the door going through metal detectors and requiring an electronic pass so it’s pretty secure. Furthermore in this instance the girls wearing niqabs suggested the compromise of revealing their faces at the door so they could be granted entry with additional checks.
Christine Braddock thinks people will be safe from one another as long as they can see one another’s face. Perhaps she doesn’t know that the vast majority of crimes are committed by people who have their face uncovered and on display for all to see.
Has Christine Braddock considered that most students are not known to other students in such a large college. Thus seeing someone’s face does not make them automatically identifiable. Furthermore one cannot judge a person by their face. One is not safer because they can see someone’s face. From their face you won’t know whether they are concealing a weapon, what propensity to violence or aggression they may have.
I suppose if you were assaulted then it would be easier to describe your attacker, however this would assume there are genuine concerns of niqabi women carrying out frequent assaults on fellow students and getting away with it! A claim yet to be made and intuitively unlikely.
The college should be questioned: how many criminal acts by people wearing religious face coverings have occurred on their premises in the last 5 years? How many thefts that were got away with because security cameras couldn’t identify the culprit due to a religious face covering? Were there any improper items that went against college policy concealed under the veil?
The upshot is that the college is suggesting a random student wearing a veil poses more of a danger to fellow students than a random student not wearing a veil. Presumably there are statistics and incidents to back this up. If the school cannot demonstrate this then they must be in clear breach of their own equality and diversity policy, as they are infringing unnecessarily on their own student’s right to religious practice.
The principle bleets: "We have a very robust Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy at Birmingham Metropolitan College but we are committed to ensuring that students are provided with a safe and welcoming learning environment whilst studying with us.
In doing so she starkly contradicts herself. She proclaims inclusion, but has not catered for the needs of a much bullied minority, she proclaims a welcoming learning environment, yet she has made clear that girls wearing a niqab are most unwelcome. She has been reckless with these girls education and shown a deficiency in her duty of care. She has placed an unnecessary burden on these few young women and forced to choose between what they felt was guidance from their God over a bigoted bit of school legislation.
It is hard to ignore that this incident occurs when recently a private members bill discussed in parliament discussed the possibility of banning the face veil in public. The principal needs to listen to the voices of reason and not the voices of intolerance
Colum McGuire, NUS Vice President (Welfare): "Whilst it is important to ensure safety on campuses, it should not mean that students lose the right to express their religious beliefs and practises. It is unacceptable for a college to enact a policy that, perhaps unintentionally, has a disproportionate impact on a specific group of students due to their faith or belief.
“No group of students from any community should feel specifically targeted due to an institutional policy. NUS believes in progressive learning environments and recognises the importance of safe, cohesive campus relations which are open to all.”
MP Khalid Mahmood said,
"I am seriously concerned that the college has taken this approach," he said. "If there is an issue of security in identifying students for exams then there are other procedures for this. We do not have a legal ban like France so I don't know why the college would want to do this.
"I see no reason why young women should not be able to practice their faith and wear what is appropriate for their religion," Mahmood continued. "It is about freedom to protect your rights.
"The college should demonstrate and encourage respect of belief, colour and background. [The decision] is not an example to set to students."
Finally it should be noted that there is nothing in principle that could prevent such a ban being extended to hijabs in the future, in actual fact to be more consistent the college may assert that it is only fair to ban hijabs since less obfuscating hats are already banned. Muslims need to stand up for therights of their fellow Muslims, even in religious opinions they may not hold, and stand up for the struggle for equal citizenship.
