UK lawmakers grill govt official over interrogation of Muslim primary school children about hijabs

MEMBERS of the United Kingdom Parliament have subjected the chief inspector of the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), Amanda Spielman, to questioning about Muslim primary school children being questioned about hijabs during inspections.

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But in her response, Spielman suggested that girls should not be forced to wear headscarves in schools just because they are facing pressures from their families.

Ofsted is the body charged with the inspection and regulation of services that care for children and young people, and services providing education and skills for learners of all ages in the UK.

Spielman’s summons by the lawmakers followed a recommendation by the schools watchdog in 2017 that officials should ask girls who wear garments such as hijabs “why they do so in school.”

Ms Spielman last year publicly offered her backing to the headteacher of a primary school when she faced a backlash for trying to ban the youngest Muslim girls wearing the hijab.

Giving evidence to the Public Accounts Committee, Ms Spielman was questioned by Labour MP Shabana Mahmood about why pupils who are simply trying to look like their mothers should be scrutinised by state officials.

She replied: “My concern is that children at school should be free from the pressures that exist in many communities outside of school.

“We know that some children are feeling pressurised to wear headscarves, that it can make children unhappy to be told they are not good because they are not wearing a headscarf.

“This is something that is difficult and is contested, but I don’t think we can say that children should simply be ‘allowed to look like their mothers’ is the solution.”

Ms Spielman said she would write to the committee to provide further detail about how Muslim schoolgirls were questioned by inspectors on the issue.

The Ofsted chief also stuck by her assertion that schools should enforce a “muscular liberalism” and not allow religious groups to influence the curriculum at the expense of others.

She cited the example of Yesodey Hatorah, a Haredi Jewish secondary school in Hackney, east London, where female pupils had their experience “shut down quite considerably”.

“We also see claims that the protection given to religion should get priority over all the other protected characteristics,” she said, in reference to the Equality Act.

“The arguments that are advanced, for example, by Haredi schools essentially are saying religion should justify not having to have regard for the Equality Act.”