Veiled teacher controversy continues

I'd fire her too. If her religious principles were that strong, she would have been veiled for the interview.

And the lawyers' analogy is incorrect. Sacking a Muslim teaching assistant for refusing to remove her veil is akin to discriminating against a teacher who insists on wearing a paper bag over their head for the entire school day.

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I think if a catholic teacher applied for a job that required her to work on Sunday's and then went to mass instead they should be fired too.

I think this has more to do with misrepresentation than discrimination.

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I think if a catholic teacher applied for a job that required her to work on Sunday's and then went to mass instead they should be fired too.

I think this has more to do with misrepresentation than discrimination.

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Well it was a 'Church of England' primary school. Why is she even teaching there if that's not the religion the school teaches in the first place?

I was going to argue the separation of church and state, but that's out the window being that it's a religious school, well and I'm not positive that England follows.

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I've commented on this one before, (http://www.bloggingbaby.com/2006/10/22/teacher-cant-wear-veil-in-class/ I used to sign my name "wallaby")
but I just wanted to say I agree Kristin.

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If she interviewed with a woman she wouldn't have had to wear her veil for an interview, according to some sects.

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Marcia, there is no separation of Church and State in England. The Queen is the Head of the Anglican Church (Church of England).

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I don't think this has anything to do with separation of church and state. If the children couldn't read her lips while she was teaching then she wasn't doing her job properly. For most people it's much harder to understand what someone is saying when you can't see their lips, especially when they're speaking in a language that is not your native tongue. And unless she stated at the interview that she needed to wear a veil while teaching then she wasn't totally honest before she was hired anyway.

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Well, in the US, you can be legally fired if you cannot perform the essential duties of the job. Additonally, there is an exception for religious institutions. So the real question is whether she could do her job with the veil on - if she can, then should should not have been fired (in the US).

Additionally, the blurb above seems a little confused on whether she is a teacher, or a teacher's assistant. I guess it really depends on how much ESL students lip read from the teacher's assistant...

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"akin to discriminating against Catholics for going to mass on a Sunday"

Well, if the Catholic was supposed to be working on Sunday, I'd fire them too.

The key is performance of her duties. If it's important that the students be able to see her lips move, then either the veil goes or she goes. Same with someone who showed up with all kinds of metal stuck in their lips.

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Err.. Doesn't Islam prohibit women from being educated, or working? Seems that she's picking and choosing the parts of her religion that she wants to abide by.

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It looks to me like she's toying with Islam to get money. Outrageous. She should consistently follow beliefs or stop lying and calling them beliefs.

Furthermore, she should have trained for a different profession if she expected to wear a veil at work. The ability to look at the teacher's lips is very important to learning a spoken language.

Aside from being guilty of religious hypocrasy, this woman is making it more likely that prospective employers will turn down all muslim women for similar jobs, for fear that they might show up for work with their face covered.

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I'm not sure, not being Muslim, but I think Muslim women can work if their husbands allow it. Might have that one wrong.

That said, if wearing the veil was relevant to how she would be performing the job, it would have been professional of her to mention that she intended to wear it. Perhaps she wouldn't have gotten the job because of it, but it would have been the right thing to do.

Similarly, I would expect someone who didn't mention that they couldn't work Sundays when interviewing a job that required it, would be fired. No matter the religion.

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No, Chris. It doesn't. In fact, the Koran *specifically* states that your girl children have to be educated as much as your boys, and Islam has had a long history of female scholars and teachers of the Koran. Some even issued fatwas. So, yeah - no prohibition on working, or on being educated.

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Mass Obligation can be fulfilled on Saturday evening. Vatican II allowed for this, I was always taught, in part to aid those who had to work on Sundays like nurses and police, etc.

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Islam does not prohibit women from working and from getting educated.

Like Uly says, Islam advocates education for women and also freedom.

As for Ms. Azmi, (going on what I've read here) personally I think she should have informed the person interviewing her of her intentions to wear the veil on the job.

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