Veiled teacher is facing the sack.

[Blackleaf]

Minister demands veiled assistant be sacked

A young woman wears the Muslim veil in a classroom


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The controversy over Muslim women wearing veils escalated after the Government's race minister demanded the sacking of a Muslim teaching assistant who insisted on the garment.

Phil Woolas said Aishah Azmi was "denying the right of children to a full education", and had put herself in a position where she could not "do her job".

It also amounted to "sexual discrimination" for Ms Azmi to refuse to work with men, he added.

The Communities and Local Government minister, whose brief includes race relations, made his intervention in comments to the Sunday Mirror.

Ms Azmi has been suspended from her job at Headfield Church of England junior school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and is now taking her case to an employment tribunal.

Mr Woolas said: "She should be sacked. She has put herself in a position where she can't do her job. She cannot teach a classroom of children wearing a veil. You cannot have a teacher who wears a veil simply because there are men in the room.

"She is denying the right of children to a full education by insisting that she wears the veil."

Mr Woolas also said that permitting Ms Azmi to specify that she only worked with females discriminated against men.

He told the newspaper: "If she is saying that she won't work with men, she is taking away the right of men to work in schools.

"By insisting that she will wear the veil if men are there, she's saying: 'I'll work with women, but not men'. That's sexual discrimination. No headteacher could agree to that."


AOL Britain poll

Should she be sacked?

Yes - 86%
No - 14%
-------

Does wearing the veil affect her ability to teach?

Yes - 81%
No - 19%

news.aol.co.uk

 

[missile]

The trouble with veil wearing people is that you'd never be sure if it was the same person under it each day...loose robes and a veil make a lovely disguise. Plus, there's the danger that she/he would decide to strap on the infamous belt of explosives someday as a class surprise. Of course, she has to adapt or lose her job.

 

[gopher]

She refused to work with men?

How can that be when Khadija Bibi (Mohammed's first wife) was his employer! She was a businesswoman who worked with and got the respect of many men in her milieu. Moreover, it is well established that women have always owned businesses in the ME and, as a consequence, have always had to work with men.

Perhaps this particular young lady is misformed. But there is absolutely no basis for saying that she cannot work with men because it is violative of religious tenets. There simply is no such rule in Islam.

 

[Chukcha]

Minister demands veiled assistant be sacked

Yes - 86%
No - 14%
-------

Does wearing the veil affect her ability to teach?

Yes - 81%
No - 19%

news.aol.co.uk

YEAH!!!!!

 

[Carmoral]

I worked in a school for 5 years, and it is important that children can see your expressions of delight/ approval or disapproval. Wearing a veil does not allow the children to get the sense of their achievements by not seeing the teachers face.
That may sound mad to some people, but it is true. As for refusing to work with a man, then I would have soon been out of a job, it would certainly been seen as discrimination on my part.
I think if she took the role as teacher and knows her job, she also knows that children need to feel safe in your presence, and I know I myself have been made to feel uncomfortable when I was once caught up in the middle of about 6 women all wearing veils and just looking at me and I’m a grown woman.

I agree she should take off her veil, and should agree to work with men, she knew what the job entails and know how children learn, and she should not have put herself in a job where contact is very important.

 

[wallyj]

She refused to work with men?

How can that be when Khadija Bibi (Mohammed's first wife) was his employer! She was a businesswoman who worked with and got the respect of many men in her milieu. Moreover, it is well established that women have always owned businesses in the ME and, as a consequence, have always had to work with men.

Perhaps this particular young lady is misformed. But there is absolutely no basis for saying that she cannot work with men because it is violative of religious tenets. There simply is no such rule in Islam.

Fire her ass.Are you saying, Gopher, that women are equal to men under ISLAMIC rule? This is just another misinformed woman who doesn't really understand her religion? Where did she get such thoughts? The great satan,GWB?

 

[CDNBear]

She refused to work with men?

How can that be when Khadija Bibi (Mohammed's first wife) was his employer! She was a businesswoman who worked with and got the respect of many men in her milieu. Moreover, it is well established that women have always owned businesses in the ME and, as a consequence, have always had to work with men.

Perhaps this particular young lady is misformed. But there is absolutely no basis for saying that she cannot work with men because it is violative of religious tenets. There simply is no such rule in Islam.

Gopher, that is exactly what we have been saying all along. It's not the religion, but the many sects that degridate it into factions and manipulate the Quran to their will.

 

[northstar]

It is the religion! It is a religion that still represses women, and segregates them, and still supports discrimination, abuse of women and children and peophilism. Take a look at what you are taking about, and you will see that it is a religion that enjoys the freedom of our Western world, but which promotes contempt and hatred.

 

[gopher]

It's not the religion, but the many sects that degridate it into factions and manipulate the Quran to their will.


This answers Wally's question.

And it is the same for Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell's hate filled "Christian" cults. All distort the Bible as radical Islam distorts the Koran.

If Mohammed can openly work for and with a professional business woman, if Spain can have woman professionals over the course of centuries when most of Europe still couldn't read, and if Shiia Iran can have 65 % of its college student body female and in training for professions that require contact with members of both genders, it means that it's time for people to take a more thorough reading of what the Koran actually says.

Contrary to certain Sunni teachings, the Koran does not state that you cannot cheer at a football match, or that genders need to be separated in weddings, or that women cannot be doctors. Just read the book and see that it says nothing like any of this. Moreover, it specifies that there is to be no compulsion in religion meaning that people are free to use as liberal (woops, I used the L word!) an interpretation, rather than rigged interpretation such as those demanded by radicalist Islam, as society sees fit.

Therefore, this young lady needs to re-read the Koran and to apply it properly.

 

[Sassylassie]

I think it was Mabuddan that stated in another thread that Islam and it's teachings are being hyjacked by radical Imams who preach using their "interpretations" of the Koran. I truely wish Muslims would read and interpreted the Koran themselves. Imams have tooooooooooo much power. I was raised RC and most of the sermons were in Latin, I missed learning 90 percent of the bible and I think that is a good thing. I do remember this part: Thou shall not covent the neighbours wife, and good lord I haven't yet.

 

[Hotshot]

If Aishah Azmi doesn't want to abide by the rules of the place she is employed, she can go back to the desert and ride camels, This is getting rediculous.

 

[earth_as_one]

You misinterpret why this woman chooses to wear a veil. Its a question of modesty not because she plans to strap on dynamite underwear. She could do that with or without a veil.

Imagine how a western women would feel if she was told she had to teach naked while men watched. That's how some Muslim women feel about exposing their faces.

She never said she couldn't teach her class without a veil. She seems ok with children seeing her face, just not men. I don't see a big deal here. If anything it might help children be more culturally sensitive.

 

[wallyj]

You misinterpret why this woman chooses to wear a veil. Its a question of modesty not because she plans to strap on dynamite underwear. She could do that with or without a veil.

Imagine how a western women would feel if she was told she had to teach naked while men watched. That's how some Muslim women feel about exposing their faces.

She never said she couldn't teach her class without a veil. She seems ok with children seeing her face, just not men. I don't see a big deal here. If anything it might help children be more culturally sensitive.

No big deal. I suppose if your daughter worked in an all-night convenience store it would be no big deal if people came in and out all night with thier faces covered. This is CANADA and BRITIAN. If you cannot abide by our rules ,GET THE HELL OUT.

 

[Hotshot]

If anything it might help children be more culturally sensitive.

And why would we necessarily want this?? If we go to their country, they would expect us to do things their way, so if they don't want to so things out way, send them back to the desert.

 

[Hotshot]

Imagine how a western women would feel if she was told she had to teach naked while men watched. That's how some Muslim women feel about exposing their faces.

That is absolutely rediculous.

 

[wallyj]

And about modesty,Would you walk around a nude beach with your clothes on?Or would you conform? When in Rome,do as the romans do.Such arrogance. These people are saying that they will come to your house and you must accomodate them,instead of accepting your hospitality. When I have a gay couple at my place,they know it offends me to see them making out. So they don't.Courtesy is the cornerstone of civilization. I wish more people would embrace that.

 

[Researcher87]

It is the religion! It is a religion that still represses women, and segregates them, and still supports discrimination, abuse of women and children and peophilism. Take a look at what you are taking about, and you will see that it is a religion that enjoys the freedom of our Western world, but which promotes contempt and hatred.

Yeah Christianity has the same amount of hatred and segregation in just like Islam if we listen to your bigoted logic.

 

[earth_as_one]

That is absolutely ridiculous.(spelling corrected)

Why do you find it so hard to believe that a women who has never exposed her face to a man outside their immediate family might feel embarassed to expose their faces in front of men they don't know. Modesty is relative. For some its a Burka, for others its a G-string. As hard as it is to believe in this day of instant on-line porn, but that is the way these women genuinely feel about it.

As someone who believes that the right to choose is a fundamental human right, I back a Muslim's women's right to choose.

 

[Researcher87]

And about modesty,Would you walk around a nude beach with your clothes on?Or would you conform? When in Rome,do as the romans do.Such arrogance. These people are saying that they will come to your house and you must accomodate them,instead of accepting your hospitality. When I have a gay couple at my place,they know it offends me to see them making out. So they don't.Courtesy is the cornerstone of civilization. I wish more people would embrace that.

I would walk around a nude beach with my clothes on unless there was few if any people there at the nude beach.

 

[earth_as_one]

It wasn't that long ago, Catholic women wore a Mantilla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantilla