British student sues over dress

British student sues over dress

BRITAIN: A 15-year-old Muslim schoolgirl in Britain filed a case against her college on Friday for banning her from attending classes for wearing a long, flowing jilbab gown, lawyers said.

Shabina Begum, whose nationality was not given, considers it her religious right to wear the jilbab, popular in Indonesia.

Her case has been filed at London's High Court, where a judge will rule if the complaint has legal grounds.

Begum has not attended Denbigh High School in Luton, 80 percent of whose students are Muslim, since September 2002.

School rules oblige students to wear a uniform, or shalwar kamiz, pants with a long shirt common in South Asia.

-- AFP