Junta's education authorities back a Malaga school over hijab row

The Junta de Andalucía’s Education Department is backing a school in Malaga city which has told a Muslim pupil that she cannot wear a hijab in class. The regional government spent a week studying the case after the 14-year-old complained, and says it is one of the school’s rules that pupils are not allowed to wear anything on their heads. The girl’s parents have been told that their two daughters may attend a different school which does not impose that rule, if they so wish.

The school in question is the San Juan de Dios Hijas de la Caridad, usually known as Goleta. The girl’s parents say that both of their daughters – the younger is 12 – have decided to wear the hijab, and the elder was removed from class when she did so.

The Moroccan Immigrant Integration Association asked the Education authorities to investigate what they consider “a case of Islamophobia”. The family are Egyptian, and the two girls have been attending the school for over a year. In mid-January, the elder began to wear a cap and scarf to cover her hair, but on 21 February she decided to replace the cap with the hijab. In a video she recorded for the Moroccan Association, she said she was told to go to the library and was not allowed into her classroom, so she has missed lessons and exams, and the school has said if she continues to wear the hijab she will have to stay in the library to the end of term or go to a different school.

The Education Department says the school has “acted correctly”, and the family has the option of moving their daughters elsewhere. Education delegate Mercedes García Paine insists that “wearing a veil is not a right, so the school is not contravening any fundamental rights”.

She says this is not a matter of religious differences, but is just one of the school rules which the family were aware of when they decided to educate their children at a religious school. The family has not yet said whether the girls will be moving to another school or not.