A HIGH school in Valencia has sent a pupil home and refused to let her back into class unless she takes off her hiyab, or headscarf, reports SOS Racism.
The teenager is Muslim and of Moroccan descent, but was born in Spain and has Spanish nationality, and wears the hiyab out of choice, and when she was ordered on the first day back at school after the summer break to take her scarf off, she reported the incident to the Valencia-based branch of the anti-xenophobia charity.
Other organisations the complaint has been shared with include Movement Against Intolerance, the Civic Platform Against Islamophobia, and Valencia's Islamic Cultural Centre, and it has been referred to the regional and national ombudsman.
According to the pupil, she was called into the headmaster's office on the first day of term and told 'in no uncertain terms' to remove her hiyab and that she would not be allowed back in school the next day if she was still wearing it.
She has now missed over a week of school as a result.
The various organisations have been in contact with the regional education minister, who sent out the schools inspector to investigate.
Once the inspector was confident the pupil's version was completely accurate, he called the headmaster to his office for a meeting to 'request he change his attitude'.
The inspector said the headmaster had made a 'closed and literal interpretation' of a school dress code article which forbids students from wearing headgear in class, but which was drawn up with the aim of preventing them wearing balaclavas, baseball hats or woolly hats pulled down to cover their faces.
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