Turkish court annuls Muslim headscarf reform

Apparently the issue about the wearing of head scarves in the classroom being a problem in Ireland was a story created by the media nevertheless there are now many people jumping on the bandwagon.

Today (19th. July) I noticed a number of posters in the city centre with the following headline "THE HIJAB, RACISM & EDUCATION". The public are invited to attend a meeting hosted by the Socialist Workers Party.

This is becoming an issue throughout Europe but I was unaware that it was a problem here in Ireland. However, According to some reports conflicts are developing in Irish schools over the wearing of the hijab, or headscarf, by Muslim pupils and recently the president of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) Aine O'Neill said

"Will we see a situation where one school will allow or encourage cultural diversity and another will not? The Equal Status Act prohibits discrimination on nine grounds, one of which is race, and another is religion. We can't have schools which don't 'do' non-nationals, as we had schools in the past which didn't 'do' special needs students,"

According to Miss O'Neill the issue is a major challenge in faith-based schools where the headscarf is definitely not part of the standard school uniform and she warned that if the Department of Education did not provide official policy on this then each of the management bodies would be obliged to do so and"we may then add to the conflict rather than provide cohesion".