by Khadija Khan, spiked
A London school that forces seven-year-old girls to wear a veil should not be receiving state funding.
An independent Islamic school in London that forces young girls to wear hijabs is about to receive state funding. This news should alarm Britain. The decision makes a mockery of the hard-earned freedoms and liberties – particularly gender equality – that are woven into the British way of life.
Barnet Hill Academy, north London, will become a voluntary-aided primary school in September, after winning approval from the local council last month. When this happens, the school will be nearly entirely funded by taxpayers, even though it is imposing values on its pupils that the majority of the public would outright reject.
Barnet Hill Academy requires young girls to wear hijabs from the age of seven (year three) and above. Despite living in a country where women have the freedom to choose their attire, these young girls will instead have Islamic dress codes imposed on them in the name of upholding Islamic moral standards – standards that are profoundly discriminatory and inherently misogynistic.
We must be on guard against the spread of hardline Islam in British schools. I distinctly remember the case of the headmistress of St Stephen’s Primary in Newham in east London. In 2018, Neena Lall banned hijabs and fasting for pupils under eight. She received death threats and was labelled an ‘evil racist’ for doing so. Eventually, the hijab ban was reversed and Lall was forced into a humiliating apology.