Aishah Azmi
Encyclopedia
Islam in the United Kingdom
Islam has been present in the United Kingdom since its formation in 1707, though it was not legally recognised until the Trinitarian Act in 1812. Today it is the second largest religion in the country with estimates suggesting that by 2010 the total Muslim population had reached 2.869 million.The...
woman who came to public attention in 2006 after being suspended
Suspension (punishment)
Suspension is a form of punishment that people receive for violating rules and regulations.- Workplace :Suspension is a common practice in the workplace for being in violation of an organization's policy...
and then dismissed
Termination of employment
-Involuntary termination:Involuntary termination is the employee's departure at the hands of the employer. There are two basic types of involuntary termination, known often as being "fired" and "laid off." To be fired, as opposed to being laid off, is generally thought of to be the employee's...
from her position as a classroom assistant in a Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
faith school
Faith school
A faith school is a British school teaching a general curriculum but with a particular religious character or has formal links with a religious organisation. It is distinct from an institution mainly or wholly teaching religion and related subjects...
for refusing to take off her niqab
Niqab
A niqab is a cloth which covers the face, worn by some Muslim women as a part of sartorial hijāb...
(face veil) when required to work in a classroom alongside a male teacher. A picture of her in her niqab appeared on the front pages of tabloids, such as The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
and the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, as well as newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph and The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. Prior to the outcome of her religious discrimination
Religious discrimination
Religious discrimination is valuing or treating a person or group differently because of what they do or do not believe.A concept like that of 'religious discrimination' is necessary to take into account ambiguities of the term religious persecution. The infamous cases in which people have been...
tribunal
Tribunals in the United Kingdom
The tribunal system of the United Kingdom is part of the national system of administrative justice with tribunals classed as non-departmental public bodies...
case, Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
broke from the traditional protocol of not commenting on a case before the courts, and gave his backing for her dismissal, for which he was severly criticised by the Employment Tribunal.
Azmi v. Kirklees MBC
When Azmi, then 22 years old, went for a job interviewJob interview
A job interview is a process in which a potential employee is evaluated by an employer for prospective employment in their company, organization, or firm. During this process, the employer hopes to determine whether or not the applicant is suitable for the job.-Role:A job interview typically...
at the Headfield Church of England Junior School in Dewsbury
Dewsbury
Dewsbury is a minster town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Huddersfield and south of Leeds...
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
she was wearing a hijab
Hijab
The word "hijab" or "'" refers to both the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and modest Muslim styles of dress in general....
, which shows the face but not the hair. According to United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal's summary of the facts of the case, she did not inform the interviewers that she intended to wear the niqab. When she started her employment she requested that she be allowed to wear the niqab and the school initially agreed, pending the advice of the local council's education service. The head teacher decided to observe Azmi in the classroom and concluded that the veil was detrimental to Azmi's teaching because it limited her diction and prevented the children from observing her facial expressions. Azmi was asked to remove the veil when working directly with children.
Azmi informed the school that she would only remove the veil if no male member of staff was present. This was deemed unacceptable by her employer, Kirklees Council, which suspended her pending the outcome of the tribunal case. A Kirklees Council education official told the press that the school's decision had “...nothing to do with religion, it’s about what makes practical common sense. We accepted that the veil could be worn anywhere in the school except the classroom. We have a lot of pupils who do not speak English as a first language and you have to be able to see people’s lips move when being taught.” Azmi remained on full pay although suspended from her position until the outcome of her legal case.
Azmi had maintained that the wearing of a niqab was a personal decision, although towards the end of October the Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
published an article claiming that her decision was actually made following a consultation with a local Islamic cleric, Mufti
Mufti
A mufti is a Sunni Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law . In religious administrative terms, a mufti is roughly equivalent to a deacon to a Sunni population...
Yusuf Sacha at the Tablighi
Tablighi Jamaat
Tablighi Jamaat is a religious movement which was founded in 1926 by Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi in India. The movement primarily aims at Tablighi spiritual reformation by working at the grass roots level, reaching out to Muslims across all social and economic spectra to bring them closer to...
mosque in Dewsbury. Sacha issued a fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
stating that it was obligatory for women to wear the niqab in the presence of men who were not their blood relatives, and this would include Azmi wearing a niqab whilst working with children. However this fatwa on wearing the niqab is strongly disputed by other British Muslim clerics.
Azmi took her case to an employment tribunal
Employment tribunal
Employment Tribunals are tribunal non-departmental public bodies in England and Wales and Scotland which have statutory jurisdiction to hear many kinds of disputes between employers and employees. The most common disputes are concerned with unfair dismissal, redundancy payments and employment...
on the basis that she had been discriminated against on religious grounds and that she had been victimised as a result of complaining. The tribunal dismissed her case of religious discrimination but found that she had been victimised. She was awarded £1000 in compensation for this victimisation and, because in dealing with her grievance the school had not followed minimum grievance procedures set out in the law, it was bound to increase this award by between 10% and 50%. It chose the minimum increase of 10% and therefore awarded her £1100 in total.
Azmi was subsequently dismissed by Kirklees Council. She lodged papers with the Employment Appeals Tribunal in London, although she was publicly advised by her MP Shahid Malik
Shahid Malik
Shahid Rafique Malik is a British Labour Party politician who became the Member of Parliament for Dewsbury in 2005 after defeating Conservative Sayeeda Warsi, now Conservative Chair Baroness Warsi and remained so till 2010 when Conservative candidate Simon Reevell won Dewsbury...
to drop the case, since 'there is no real support for it'.
Azmi's legal representative, Nick Whittingham, of Kirklees Law Centre, expected the case to be heard in the first half of 2007. It was dismissed on 30 March 2007.
Government reaction
Her case came on top of remarks by Jack StrawJack Straw
Jack Straw , British politician.Jack Straw may also refer to:* Jack Straw , English* "Jack Straw" , 1971 song by the Grateful Dead* Jack Straw by W...
who said that he had asked women visiting his constituency's surgeries to consider uncovering their noses and mouths in order to allow better communication. He claimed that no woman had ever chosen to wear a full-veil after this request. When asked whether he would prefer veils to be abolished completely, Straw said: "Yes. It needs to be made clear I am not talking about being prescriptive but with all the caveats, yes, I would rather."
As the case was ongoing, Phil Woolas
Phil Woolas
Philip James Woolas was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth from his election in 1997 to 2010. He was the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration in the Home Office, as well as being the Minister of State for the Treasury...
, a junior minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government
Department for Communities and Local Government
The Department for Communities and Local Government is the UK Government department for communities and local government in England. It was established in May 2006 and is the successor to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, established in 2001...
, said that "she should be sacked". Tony Blair, the Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
, also signalled that he considered women who wore a veil when teaching should be sacked, and added that in his opinion the veil was a "mark of separation" that made him "uncomfortable".