Good news. Politicians fail to find common ground on lifting Turkey's head scarf ban | StarTribune.com:

"Turkey's governing party failed to win key opposition support on Wednesday for plans to lift a ban on the wearing of Islamic head scarves at universities, a deeply divisive issue in a country with secular laws and a Muslim population.

The conflict over the head scarf reflects a struggle over Turkey's direction between the Islamic-oriented government, which argues for more religious freedom, and critics who believe the country's secular principles are in peril.

In Turkey, women are free to wear Islamic head scarves, but students, teachers and state-employed officials are not."

Background:
"Headscarf ban is against freedom of believe", Erdogan says.
Chief of Religious Affairs Directorate asks politicians to solve headscarf's problem by themselves.

Some 1,000 people took to the streets of the Kosovo capital yesterday to protest against a government ban on wearing Muslim headscarves in public schools.
“Our demand is that this ban to be suspended as soon as possible,” said Bujar Xhikoti, a representative of the organisers of the protest.
The organisers, relatively unknown non-governmental “Join Us” movement, warned the protests would be intensified if the ban was not suspended in a month.
Carrying signs saying Prime Minister “Hashim Thaci do not discriminate against us because we are Muslims” and chanting “Allahu Akbar” , the protesters demanded that the government allow the wearing of religious symbols in schools.
More than 90% of Kosovo’s population are Muslims, but Western values and culture dominate in the society.

Source.

El Mundo:

Najwa's family has announced they will appeal the decision of the Institute of forcing the schoolgirl to leave the center due to her going to class with a veil and is ready to go to court to defend her right to religious freedom, has said their lawyer, Ivan Jimenez Aybar.

The lawyer, Professor of Ecclesiastical Law at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, has confirmed that Najwa will resume classes tomorrow, "where she can", that is, at the Institute Gerardo Diego de Pozuelo de Alarcón.

The lawyer has indicated that Nawja has been assigned the center after the one which was closer to home, IES San Juan de la Cruz, changed the internal rules quickly to prevent the girl came to class wearing the veil.

Jiménez-Aybar has considered that the decision to "expel" Najwa IES Camilo José Cela is disproportionate and violates her "dignity" and her right to religious freedom, and stressed that from a legal standpoint, the decision is not solid, because it does not point out any fundamental right to justify the cut in the right to education of the child.

Yes, equality of students before the law!!

Background:
16-year-old removed from class from wearing the hijab.
School confirms hijab prohibition.
Opinions on Najwa's hijab.
National Federation of Muslims will take legal action against the school on Najwa's hijab affair.
Najwa's veil: an analysis.

Analysis: where will study Najwa now?

- Where will study Najwa from now?
- The girl's father says she will not change schools and that she's not going to stop wearing the veil. However, the institute Camilo Jose Cela de Pozuelo does not allow its students to attend class with their heads covered. The Community of Madrid has offered the family another institute in which it is permissible to do the "hijab" but have not yet received the request for Najwa's family to make the change.

- What is the deadline for the family to chose one of those two options?
"There is no deadline for these cases. However, when Najwa is finally medically able to return to school (she suffers from anxiety), she must choose between returning to Camilo Jose Cela without a veil or accepting the transfer.

- What would happen if she does not opt for either of them?
- Najwa is 16 and has yet to finish 4th of ESO, the final year of compulsory education, therefore, her parents are required by law to send her to class and end this cycle. In the event that Najwa does not choose either of the two solutions she has been offered and therefore fails to come to school Camilo Jose Cela, the established protocol for school absenteeism will be launched.

Mohamed Mahla and his daughter Najwa

El Mundo:

The secretary of the Federation of Muslims in Spain, Yusuf Fernandez, announced that they will complain to the Constitutional Court about the decision the Camilo Jose Cela Institute of Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid) took of expelling the young Muslims away from school for wearing the hijab in class. They consider this poses a "clear case of 'Islamophobia".

Fernandez said that this case "can be won in court" because the rejection of the child by the school board of the institute is an "aberration" that "violates and tramples" the rights recognized by the Constitution. "It is a rule that discriminates and that it lacks any legal validity," he argued.

"There is no negotiation because we are talking about a basic right. This is a battle for freedom of the Muslims and the Spanish people in general. We can not live in a state that violates human rights for free. We are undertaking this battle until the end of the Constitutional Court"he said.

In this regard, he hoped that the young Nawja wins the case and get that "triumph of freedom" that any citizen could be free to profess their religion and "dress as it sees fit". The State must not be allowed to deny a central manifestation of religious freedom, not to Catholics or anyone, he scolded.

Now he is champion of Catholics' rights. Well, just let me recover from my surprise.

So veil is a "central manifestation of religious freedom". Fernández should explain in the same defiant tone what is its meaning. And why it's not only a "cultural" thing, something that other politicians, like Leire Pajín, Secretary General of the Socialists, have claimed to be its right interpretation.

It's interesting that there was an express regulation forbidding anyone, be it Muslim or non-Muslim, to dress with the head covered. So where is the "trampling of her rights"? She has been treated as any other student!!

El Mundo reports (background here and here):

In the Calvary street, symbolically related to Christianity, a few meters from the City of Pozuelo de Alarcón, lives the small Muslim community of the town, consisting of between 150 and 200 people. In the street you can find Islamic butcher shops food and booths run by Moroccans, in addition to the small mosque, whose chairman is Mohamed, Najwa's father, the 16 year-old under the neon lights after she was removed from class for wearing the Islamic veil.

"Since ten years ago, the Moroccans have been invading the area because it is the cheapest, but there is no problem with them," said the clerk in a butcher shop on the street where Najwa's family live. She has three younger siblings. They live in an old apartment of three rooms in the same street, whose rent costs about 800 euros per month. On the estate where they live -a block of flats with a three-story courtyard-, it's said that living with them is "very good", they are people "working", "very religious", that "there are no problems (with them)."

This is an update on this story:

The Centre's management announced that the Board of Education of the Secondary Education School "Camilo José Cela" has "decided to maintain the internal rules unchanged", according to a statement written by its director, Eduardo de Bergia. The center expelled a student from a Muslim background last week after she attended class with the veil.

Now, the Department of Education of the Community of Madrid announced that, if the child wants to keep going to school with the veil, they will search "immediately" for another one, near the current center, in which they permit her go with the veil according to its internal rules, reported the deparment's official sources.

After an hour and a half meeting, the School Board, formed in addition to the permanent members (director, head teacher and secretary), by representatives of teachers, pupils, parents and administrative staff, decided to leave the article 32 of the regulations which states: "Inside the building it's not allowed to use caps or any other garment that covers the head."

The girls with their hair hidden in "solidarity" with Najwa.

El Mundo:

Najwa Malha, the 16-year-old Muslim girl who was removed from class for wearing the 'hijab' (headscarf), has not come to school today. As her father has reported this morning, Mohammed Malha, the child is suffering from severe pressure and is getting psychological counseling.

The girl is depressed because he fears she will be excluded from the Institute Camilo Jose Cela , in the Madrid suburb of Pozuelo de Alarcón. Today the Institute’s School Board meets to study if they modify the rules of procedure specifying that "inside the building is not allowed to use caps or any other garment that covers the head."

Meanwhile, Najwa will receive the solidarity of their colleagues and this morning, five children have gone to school with his head covered (four with the 'hijab' and one with a hood). "We’re going to support her whatever the risks ", has assured 14-year-old Fatima, a Spanish of Moroccan origin aged 14, whose father says he is supportive of this protest, but that he is not pushing her, as was reported yesterday by the center.

Her father, Jarid, says that "everyone can go to school dressed as he pleases. There is no rule." Latifa, another youth who has come to class with her hair covered, said: "We do this to show solidarity with Najwa. We try to help her not to feel alone."

As reported yesterday, the parents and their daughters could not attend their classes and were instead taken to a study hall, after going to school with their head covered in solidarity with the child.

According to the digital newspaper 'Andaluspress.com' , these children, Spanish nationals with Muslim origin, were able to enter their class yesterday, but after the break, around 11.30 hours, the three young women with 'hijab' were removed and taken to a study hall.

According to the father of one of the girls, the school admonished them that "they were just asking for trouble" to appear with their head covered in class. However, this family maintains that "it is their right" to do whatever they want and that their response has been that "have a duty to take because they are Muslim."

The parent said that since then, the Institute has not allowed them to return to class and even gave them a warning, explaining what happened. In this situation, parents today have decided to accompany the students to ask for explanations and see what happens to their daughters.

When came to light the case of the 16 year-old who had her entry banned, the Director of the Institute Camilo Jose Cela de Pozuelo de Alarcón said that at "all time" they had complied with "the right to education" of the student and referred to the Article 32 of the Rules of Procedure of the Centre, which states that "inside the building is not allowed to use caps or any other garment that covers the head."

The Education Department of the Community of Madrid said on Friday that the department is respecting the internal regulations of each school, which are approved by the School Councils. Furthermore, that respect is already reflected in the Organic Law of Education (LOE) and the Decree of Coexistence prepared by the Community of Madrid.

Education Department’s sources who have been in contact with the center ensure that the School Board could repeal section of its rules prohibiting wearing a headscarf in class.

Moroccan Workers' Association (atime) criticized the decision that prevents Najwa from going to class for wearing the 'hijab' (veil) and requested the urgent intervention of the Department of Education of the Community of Madrid.

Najwa, of Moroccan family but a Spanish national, has ensured that she would use the Islamic headscarf "whatever happens." The youth took this decision against her parents, who tried to persuade her not to wear it.

About her motives, Karam said it was "an act of submission" to her God, which, in her view, must be respected, but she also said that she wears it because she likes to.

ABC:

Najwa didn't appear in the center, although her father did: "I came to submit a medical report because she has yet to enter a psychiatric facility. She has a deep depression." She has spent the night in the hospital Puerta de Hierro. "This afternoon, her doctor will decide whether she is entering it or not."


As of yesterday, "with rumors that are going to b expelled and the pressure of today she is getting worse. Since then, she neither eats nor sleeps, is really bad," said his father." "Now", he continued, we are more worried because of her health that because of her schooling. Mohamed repeated to the media that Najwa is entitled to wear the" hijab "guaranteed in Article 16 of the Constitution.

Oh, well, so if another teenager wants to go naked because the religion of the “naked saints” tells her to, are we also going to let her attend class because if not “she would need counselling”?

This girl wears it because she thinks it’s cool and possibly as a rebellion. But what really is strange in this case (as some commenters noted in the article) is that she is doing something because of her deep commitment “whatever happens”, but then, when she is removed from class, she feels depressed. Isn’t that a little bit strange?

There is another fact to highlight: Spanish Government wants to forbid the presence of crucifixes from public schools  and now this girl  (and her companions) wants to use a non-Christian (Muslim) religious symbol against the express regulation of the school. Speaking about equlity of religions.

Lastly, the School Board has teachers, parents and schoolchildren as members. The rule was mainly stablished, as in other schools, perhaps to prevent people from having a dirty hair and transmiting and spreading lice between the schoolchildren.

Several days ago, the Olympic Committee banned Iranian football team to play in Youth Olympics because they were wearing the hijab. Islamist Watch posts about the dressing issue at sports:

Relative to most areas of public life, the sports community has proven quite resistant to demands that Islam be accommodated, perhaps because the integrity of competition requires that fixed rules apply to all. FIFA, the global governing body of soccer, is the latest to just say no:

The secretary-general of Iran's National Olympic Committee has called on Muslim countries to protest the world soccer body's ban on headscarves for women during the Youth Olympic Games this summer.

Bahram Afsharzadeh has said that FIFA's decision to forbid the Iranian women's football team from wearing headscarves during the games in Singapore is a violation of Muslims' rights and shows disregard for "issues such as nationality, religion, and race."

The decision also creates "obstacles on their part in the way of women's progress," the hard-line Fars news agency quoted Afsharzadeh as saying.

Yes, a representative of Iran's theocracy decried "obstacles … in the way of women's progress." But FIFA's rules trump his protestations. They stipulate that "basic compulsory equipment," which does not include headgear, "must not contain any political, religious, or personal statements." Moreover, "a player may use equipment other than the basic equipment provided that its sole purpose is to protect him physically and it poses no danger to him or any other player." So even if one disagrees that an Islamic headscarf, by nature, carries a religious message, good luck arguing that its function is to prevent soccer-related injuries.

This is not the first time that hijabs have stirred controversy in sports. Three years ago, the International Football Association Board, which writes the rules that FIFA enforces, refused to cave after the Quebec Soccer Federation announced that "the wearing of the Islamic veil or any other religious item is not permitted." In addition, the Swiss basketball association ProBasket told a player set to debut in a regional league last year that she could not don a hijab on the court, noting that the world governing body FIBA prohibits religious symbols or head coverings.

And while female Muslim boxers can wear hijabs at the 2012 Olympics, male counterparts in the UK have yet to win religious accommodation of their own. Muslims and Sikhs are attempting to overturn the Amateur Boxing Association of England's newly comprehensive ban on beards, enacted because "facial hair can cause abrasions to opponents' faces … and most importantly doctors say clean-shaven athletes allow them to see cuts."

We close with a tragic tale of Islamic attire and sports. A woman was killed last week in Australia when her clothing, variously described as a burqa or hijab, got caught by the axle of a go-kart that she was driving. Signs at the track reportedly "outline a number of rules, including appropriate footwear for drivers, but do not mention scarves or other forms of head-dress." If they had, a Muslim's life could have been saved — despite the inevitable charges of anti-Muslim bigotry that such restrictions would have provoked.

I have copied it in its entirety because I really believe it's all worth reading. This is not a matter of  bigotry or something similar: it's one of equality. If no one can compete with clothes which could be deemed religious, no one can, whatever the anger they can feel.

I insist that the ban should have been done before, in the moment they applied for their place at the Olympics. But that's not the point: the point is that if you don't comply with certain specific norms, you can't compete.