Girls wearing hijab in school from age 5

MUSLIM girls as young as five are allowed to wear hijabs as part of their official uniform in thousands of state primary schools.

Head teachers at nearly a fifth of primary schools – including Church of England primaries – have added the religious headscarf to their uniform policy, a survey found.

Campaigners, politicians and church leaders have criticised the trend, claiming that schools are only adopting the policy so as not to appear Islamophobic.

Education watchdog Ofsted said there was ‘growing concern’ over the issue and that inspectors are investigating whether the change in regulations was due to pressure from parents or religious leaders.

The survey by The Sunday Times newspaper found that 18 per cent of 800 primary schools across 11 regions had introduced the hijab to their The hijab: Counts as uniform uniform policy as an optional item. The hijab covers the hair and neck but not the face.

With more than 17,000 primaries in England, the figure suggests the number adopting the policy could run into the thousands. The highest proportion was in Birmingham where 46 per cent of 72 primaries included the hijab in their written online uniform policy.

In Luton the figure was 36 per cent and in Tower Hamlets in East London it was 34 per cent. But the policy was not widespread in all areas with large Muslim communities – only 6 per cent of schools surveyed in Leicester, Manchester and Blackburn had adopted it.

In six of the 11 regions studied, some Church of England primaries allowed the hijab.

An Ofsted source told The Sunday Times: ‘While it is for schools to determine their uniform rules in accordance with the law, there is growing concern about the hijab appearing in a primary school uniform list. We are looking at whether there is evidence that schools are facing external pressure to adapt their policies.’

Amina Lone, a Muslim former Labour parliamentary candidate, from Manchester, said: ‘In an Islamic context, the hijab is commonly understood as being for females after they reach the age of puberty. There are very few Muslims who would say a child should be covered.’

Children’s rights campaigner Gina Khan, from Birmingham, said: ‘Schools are allowing it because they are afraid of being called Islamophobic and they have been told that this is a religious garment – but they need to support Muslim girls to have free choices, not to be set apart from other children.’

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, said the uniform policy should be ‘fiercely resisted’ because the UK was a ‘ secular western country largely influenced by the Christian faith’.

The survey comes months after Birmingham City Council’s equalities chief was criticised for trying to force a head teacher to allow a four-year-old to wear the hijab.

The girl had been told to stop wearing her hijab at a local primary. After finding out, Waseem Zaffar – cabinet member for transparency, openness and equality at the council and a relative of the girl – met the head and demanded a change of policy.

But his intervention was strongly criticised and in March the city council stepped in to reassure schools they were free to ban pupils from wearing Islamic headscarves.

‘Fear being called Islamophobic’