Source: Sydney Morning Herald
A dispute between a teenage student and her school threatened to boil over in Australia as education officials denied claims she was disciplined for wearing a religious tunic and the student promised not to back down from the fight.
Yasamin Alttahir, a year 11 Auburn Girls High School student, stuck by her statement that the school's principal, Sharon Ford, had ordered her to stop wearing her mantoo - a body-length religious tunic - to school.
Yasamin said she still had the detention slip to prove that when she refused to stop wearing the mantoo she was placed on detention last week, and says she was also threatened with suspension.
Yasamin, 17, a Shiite Muslim vowed she would not back down.
"I've been wearing it to school for two years and for them to first praise me for it and then tell me to take it off - why should I back down?" she said.
Yasamin feels it�s a case of blatant discrimination by the school and has taken her case to the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board.
The State Government's uniform policy was amended last year to include a student's right to wear religious attire.
A spokeswoman for Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt said the school did not put Yasamin on detention for the uniform breach and insisted no disciplinary action had been taken or threatened.
Kim Fillingham, Department of Education regional director for south-western Sydney, said the school's uniform code was very broad and had been developed in close consultation with the Muslim community.
"There's a very wide variety of attire for the needs of Muslim girls at the school," Mr Fillingham said.
"The community decided [the mantoo] was not an appropriate part of the girls' uniform to allow normal activities in an educational setting. The community believed the option of wearing long trousers or a long skirt was appropriate."
He said that "if her parents had sent a note, as was requested over quite an extensive period of time", it wouldn't have been a problem.
But Yasamin said it was untrue that she was asked for a note.
"I was never asked for a note," she said. "My parents came to the school and they weren't asked for a note. If a note was so desperately wanted, why didn't they ask? I'll bring it in now if they want me to."
A meeting between Yasamin, her parents, the school and Sheik Haydar Naji, a Shiite from the al-Albait Islamic Centre in Auburn, is being arranged for this week.
Yasamin said her parents were "outraged" that she had been asked not to wear the mantoo and would support her stand.
She has also compiled a petition of more than 100 signatures from students, parents and members of the community supporting her.