Liam, a resident of Luton writes in the comments with some insights on Thursday’s story about religious freedom and school uniforms:

I come from Luton, the town in question, in Bedfordshire. I went to a neighbouring school. There are some points of fact that need to be stated first.

Luton is a town of just under 200,000 people, about 45,000 of whom are Muslim, mostly from Bangladesh, Kashmir and Pakistan. There are several other immigrant groups in the town, Irish, West Indian, African, Eastern European etc, (I count myself amongst them). It is therefore a very diverse community.

The school in question, Denbigh High School, has a school roll that is 80% Muslim. The headmaster of that school at the time this issue came up in 2002, is himself a Muslim. Most of the Board of Governers of the school, and the Parent/Teachers Organisation are Muslim, as are a large amount of the teachers.

95% of the children come from minority ethnic backgrounds and fully 75% have a first language that is not English. 85% percent of pupils come from poor families.

Given the above, the superb results achieved by the school, as highlighted by their last full inspection by H.M. Inspector of Schools in 2004, are a testament to the hard work and dedication of the staff and of both the head teachers during this period.
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The Law Lords in Britain’s highest court decided yesterday that schools in England could enforce their dress policy, if they had consulted with the local community before instituting the policy.

One such school uniform was challenged by seventeen year old Shabina Begum, who wanted to wear a jilbab instead of a hijab and a shalwar kameez, which the school allowed. She argued that according to her religion she must dress modestly.
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