Muslim kids back at Cape Town school

2013-01-25 12:19

(File) (Shutterstock)

Johannesburg - Two children kicked out of school for wearing traditional Muslim headgear have been re-admitted, the Cape Times reported on Friday.

The parents of the siblings met representatives of the Eben Dönges High School, Western Cape education department officials and several Muslim leaders on Thursday afternoon to resolve the matter.

The siblings are attending their first full day of classes on Friday.

Nabila Dramat, who is the mother of teenagers Sakeenah, 16, and Bilaal, 13, said the school called her on the first day of term and said it was against the code of conduct for her children to wear a headscarf and fez.

She told The New Age she had taken the two to school each day since the incident, but they had been denied entry by school principal Wilfred Taylor.

Speaking to the Cape Times on Thursday, she said her children were "heartbroken" to be out of school for this reason.

"I can't allow them to take it [the headscarf and fez] off, because it is against our Islamic beliefs.... It is very sad. It is very disturbing," she was quoted as saying.

Western Cape education department spokesperson Paddy Attwell told the Cape Times on Thursday that schools had to take into account religious and cultural diversity in their uniform policies.

- SAPA