Islamic school’s policy of keeping boys and girls apart ruled illegal
A MIXED sex Islamic school can no longer segregate pupils throughout the school day after judges branded it a breach of equality law in a landmark case yesterday.
Al-Hijrah School in Birmingham has been told its policy of completely separating boys and girls from the age of nine for religious reasons was illegal on sex discrimination grounds.
The Court of Appeal ruled pupils of both genders were left less prepared for adult life by being unable to interact with each other. All schools with similar policies will now have to allow the sexes to mix – with about 20 Islamic, Jewish and Christian schools affected.
The ruling will not affect single sex schools or schools where pupils are separated for legitimate educational reasons, such as in sex and health education and PE.
The case came about after the school was criticised in an Ofsted report in June last year for its policy of segregation in lessons, breaks and clubs.
Inspectors also criticised the school for library books that ‘included derogatory comments about, and the incitement of violence towards, women’. Headmas- ter Arshad Mohammed told inspectors he had not realised the books were available and called them ‘abhorrent’.
But the school appealed against the segregation criticism, meaning publication of the Ofsted report has been blocked until now. In addition, news outlets were even banned from naming the school over fears of a ‘media storm’ – but following an appeal by the Daily Mail in July, that order was lifted.
The Ofsted report will shortly be published – finally allowing parents to read it for the first time. Following the case, Amanda Spielman, head of the watchdog, said: ‘ I’m delighted. The school is teaching boys and girls entirely separately, making them walk down separate corridors, and keeping them apart at all times. The school’s case was fought by Birmingham’s Labourrun council.
It said the report was unfair to penalise the school for gender sep- aration because it had not been told previously this would be an issue. Speaking on behalf of the school, Colin Diamond from the council said: ‘There are many other faith schools around the country that practice gender separation, none of which has been downgraded by Ofsted because of this.’
The case follows an investigation into the Trojan Horse scandal, which saw Birmingham state schools infiltrated by hardliners intent on imposing an Islamic agenda. Al-Hijrah, an Islamic voluntary aided school in Bordesley Green, was not one of the original schools investigated, but Ofsted said it had ‘community links’ with those schools.
Matt Bennett, Birmingham’s Conservative spokesman on education, called for Al-Hijrah School to be shut down following the Court of Appeal’s ruling.
Last night he said: ‘It is beyond dispute that the council’s efforts have failed to bring about the necessary improvements.
‘It really would be in the best interests of all concerned if the school were closed down in a managed and orderly fashion.’
‘Kept apart at all times’