Muslim student, 18, banned from college because she refuses to remove her burka
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 4:41 PM on 23rd October 2009
A burka-wearing student has been banned from enrolling at a college after staff claimed the Muslim garment was a barrier to ‘safety and communication’.
Shawana Bilqes, 18, was forced to abandon her learning plans after she refused to remove the head-to-toe gown which reveals only her eyes.
She had been asked to show her face as a check to avoid identity fraud in case she was posing as someone else.
But when she explained she could not due to her religious belief she was forced off her Access course for an HE Diploma at Burnley College, Lancashire.
Today Miss Bilqes said: ‘It is my choice to wear the veil.
‘I live around the corner from the college in an area where there are so many practising Muslims.
‘I tried to compromise but they wouldn’t. The college sent me a latter to say I could continue with my course if I stopped wearing the veil.
‘We are in the 21st century and we get people from all walks of life. I’m in the police cadets as well and yet it’s not a problem wearing the veil there.’
Miss Bilqes was approached by a member of staff as she arrived at the college at the start of term to book in on her first day of study.
Now the school leaver is faced with looking elsewhere to gain her qualifications.
Burnley College is in a new £81million development that they describe as ‘the most ambitious development of its kind in the country’.
It boasts 7,500 sixth form students and a 100 per cent pass rate for the fourth year running.
Today College principle John Smith hit back at Miss Bilqes’s claims by saying all students and staff wear photo IDs for security - so common sense said they must see her face.
Mr Smith said: ‘We do require all students of Burnley College to have their faces visible when at the college.
‘There are three reasons for this requirement. We are determined to maintain the highest standards of teaching and learning in Burnley College.
‘To do this effectively requires unimpeded communication from the teacher to all students, from the students to the teacher and between student and student.
‘It is not possible to maintain this essential full communication of the face of any student is not fully visible.
‘We are committed also to maintain a fully inclusive college where students from all backgrounds integrate to the fullest possible extent.
‘This is essential to maintain a healthy college community. The basis of this inclusive and integrated community, where all play their part, is full communication.
‘We are also determined to provide a safe environment for all our students.
‘To do so, we have taken a range of measures - central to this is that all members of the college community should be identifiable at all times when in the college.
‘To this end we require students and staff to wear a security card which displays their photograph.
‘Where individuals are able to comply with these reasonable requirements, which apply to all students equally, we would be very pleased to admit them to Burnley College.
‘Where individuals decline to comply, then I am afraid that we cannot accommodate them.’
The role of the burka in Europe was highlighted in 2006 by Labour MP Jack Straw when the now Justice Secretary hit out at the rise of the garment in his Blackburn constituency - just 11 miles from Burnley.
In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke out in June against the robe, claiming it reduced women to servitude and undermined their dignity.
He gave his backing to the establishment of a parliamentary commission to look at whether to ban the wearing of them in public.
In 2004, France banned the Islamic headscarves in its state schools.
Mr Sarkozy said: ‘We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity.
‘That is not the idea that the French republic has of women’s dignity.
‘The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience. It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic.’
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