In a video circulating on social media, the headteacher of England's best primary school, Neena Lall has been portrayed as Hitler, while the school's former chairman of governors has been portrayed as Stalin.
It is said that the outrage by the local community is due to the decision of banning girls under the age of eight from wearing the hijab at school. The secular state school, St Stephen's in London's East End is based in the centre of a predominant Pakistani and Bangladeshi community.
Neena Lall's decision to ban the hijab as well as stop children from fasting at school during Ramadan for health and safety reasons has not gone down well with local Muslim figures. There has been an outrage regarding these bans, so much so that it had to be revoked and the former head of governors, Arif Qawi resigned from his post.
Qawi had stressed that the Islamic headscarf was traditionally worn by a girl at or after puberty as a sign of modesty in front of men. However, he was concerned when he saw girls as young as five wearing the hijab who would not play with classmates in the playground.
In the film, the headteacher, Neena Lall reiterated that it was her responsibility to teach British values and also stressed that she was not targeting any one religion. She said, “A couple of years ago I asked the children to put their hands up if they thought they were British. Very few put their hand up. They thought they were Indian, they thought they were Pakistani, but very few thought they were British... Although their culture and their religion is really important, they've got to realise they're also fortunate to be here... and they have to look at what our values are as a British society.”
20,000 people had signed a petition to have the hijab ban at the school lifted, and five councillor's at Newham wrote a letter condemning the ban, stating that it would leave students “victimised, intimidated and threatened when practising their faith”.
While some members of the local community were aghast about the ban on fasting and hijab, others were for the decision. A mother of two daughters who attend the school shared, “I'm a modern, British Muslim. I don't force my girls to wear the hijab. They're not into fasting yet. If you're of a certain age you're not obliged to fast. I think when they're in secondary school, like 13 or 14, then wearing the hijab is their choice. I have seen young girls in year 2 wearing it I think they're too young to wear it in primary school.”
However, another mother with two children believed that the headteacher was targeting Muslims. She said, “The school is good. But the headteacher picked on one religion without letting parents know. She said it was about making the kids mire British and modern but you can do that in other ways.”
