An Indian origin school principal won a legal battle in the High Court of the United Kingdom which upheld her ban on prayer rituals. This came after a Muslim student legally challenged the ban as discriminatory. Katherine Birbalsingh is also called the strictest headmistress of the UK or Britian’s strictest headmistress.
Birbalsingh, who is of Indo-Guyanese heritage, informed the court that Michaela School located in Wembley, North London, is a secular secondary school. She stated that the school’s policy does not permit the religious prayers to maintain an inclusive environment. Despite half of the school students being Muslims, there are also a significant number of Hindu, Sikh and Christian pupils.
“As the governing body is aware, the school does not provide a prayer room for use by the pupils for various reasons. These reasons include that a prayer room would foster division among pupil’s contrary to the ethos, lack of availability of space and available staff to supervise pupils and that the pupils will miss important school activities including during the lunch break if they were to spend time in prayer room,” Birbalsingh told the court, a media agency reported.
Justice Thomas Linden, in an 80-page judgement following a hearing in January ruled in the schools’ favour. The judge stated the school was justified in considering whether to allow indoor prayer rituals which would change its long-standing policy of not having a prayer room.
She (unnamed pupil) knew that the school is secular, and her own evidence is that her mother wished her to go there as it was known to be the strictest. Her evidence has focused on her preferences and what she supposes the position would be elsewhere, the judgement noted. In response to the ruling, Birbalsingh hailed it as a victory for all schools and praised the school’s principles yet respective secularism.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan supported the decision, asserting that the head teachers should have autonomy in making school decisions. The High Court in London ruled that the prayer ritual ban was legal under the Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Section 19 of the Equality Act 2010.
The Muslim student who’s named cannot be disclosed for legal reasons argued that the ban uniquely impacted her faith because of its ritualistic nature. Although she lost the case, she feels what she stood up for what she believed was right and now aims to concentrate on studies.
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