A single mother of three daughters has launched legal action against the prestigious Holland Park School in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea after she was told she could not wear a face veil on its premises. Rachida Serroukh, 37, has initiated a discrimination test case against the institution.
A devout Muslim, Serroukh was ecstatic to know that her 11 year old daughter was offered a place in the school. “Education is very important to me and I want to ensure that all my children get a good education. My daughter who will be starting at Holland Park after the school holidays, did really well in her year 6 Sats and was the top girl in her class.” However, her happiness was short-lived. While attending an evening for parents of new pupil at the school on June 13, the mother was shocked to be challenged over her decision to wear a face veil.
After a talk by the head teacher, the qualified childcare assistant was approached by a member of staff who asked to speak to her. “I was already feeling uncomfortable because I had to leave my daughter standing on her own. As the teacher was a female, I lifted my veil when we were talking together in the room.” Initially she thought that the teacher who raised the issue with her veil had misunderstood and thought her daughter would be attending school in a face veil. “I explained clearly that my daughter wears a headscarf and would not be coming to school in a face veil. Then I realised she was talking about me.”
Serroukh asked to see the school policy banning visitors from wearing a face veil several times, as she knew a friend who wore a similar veil and had been attending school events for five years without any issues. The teacher then asked her to leave the school through the back exit, to which she refused saying she needed to collect her daughter and would be leaving through the same door she had arrived. “I was very shaken and was in a state of shock about what had happened. I had never experienced anything like this before. I have experienced name calling in the street from strangers about my veil but nothing like this had ever happened before. When I got home, I just broke down,” Serroukh said.
She later wrote to the school for clarification on the ban. Deputy head Ross Wilson wrote to Serroukh that the school did not have a written policy banning visitors wearing a face veil. “It has not been necessary to date for the school to have this requirement stated in written policy. Given the concerns you have raised, we are now considering a written amendment to our health and safety policy to include this specific requirement and will follow the normal protocol of seeking the approval of the governing body,” he wrote.
When asked how he intends to justify the ban, he said it was a health and safety issue to be able to identify all those who enter the school premises. Calling the incident “discrimination”, Serroukh said she wished to work with the teachers and when she was taking qualifications to become a nursery nurse, she lifted her veil while working with children. Her solicitor Attiq Malik of Liberty Law Solicitors said his firm had drafted a letter to the school because it was a “straighforward” test case of discrimination based on the grounds of religion.
“The government constantly talks about British values. To me, those values include diversity and multiculturalism. If a school in London is doing this, what might be happening elsewhere?” he said. The school is yet to respond to repeated requests to comment.
