23 Jan 2008

The High Court today has decided to hear the case of 14-year-old Sarika Singh, excluded from Aberdare Girl’s School in South Wales for wearing a Sikh religious bangle.

The human rights group Liberty will argue that the school has breached race relations and human rights laws, as well as a 25-year-old Law Lords’ decision which allows Sikh children to wear items representing their faith, including turbans, to school.

Anna Fairclough, Liberty’s Legal Officer representing the Singhs, said:
“Nothing less than our traditions of religious freedom and racial tolerance are on trial in this case. Individuals from any religion who wish to modestly express their faith should not be denied a proper education as Ms Singh has.”

The High Court refused to allow Singh to attend school while the case is ongoing, but Liberty will ask the court to reconsider at an interim hearing. Singh was forced to have isolated school lessons for two months and has been excluded from the school in South Wales since 5 November 2007.

Singh, of mixed Welsh/Punjabi origin, has been brought up in the Sikh faith and is the only Sikh at the Aberdare Girl’s School. The school’s uniform policy prohibits the wearing of any jewellery other than a wrist watch and plain ear studs. When the school noticed that Singh was wearing the religious bangle, she was subsequently isolated throughout the day, including meals, for approximately two months.

UNITED SIKHS, an international advocacy charity who are supporting Ms Singh, will apply to file a third party intervention. Liberty will argue that the Aberdare Girls School is violating the Race Relations Act 1976, the Equality Act 2006 and the Human Rights Act 1998.

Contact: Jen Corlew on 0207 378 3656 or 0797 3 831 128

Notes to Editors

1. The Welsh Assembly published uniform guidelines for Welsh schools on 18 January 2008, after facing pressure from protestors earlier that week who called for the guidelines to be introduced.

2. Liberty filed the legal challenge in the High Court on 19 December 2007 which argues that the Governing Body of the Aberdare Girls School has indirectly discriminated on the grounds of race contrary to the Race Relations Act 1976; breached the duty to promote equality under s71 Race Relations Act 1976; indirectly discriminated on the ground of religion or belief contrary to the Equality Act 2006; and breached the Human Rights Act 1998 Article 8 (the right to a private life), Article 9 (freedom of religion), Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) and Article 2 of the First Protocol which protects the right not to be denied an education.

3. The Kara (a small plain single bangle) is widely accepted as a central element or requirement of the Sikh race and religion and is specifically intended to be worn on the wrist as a reminder of the tenets of the faith.

4. Valleys Race Equality Council are supporting the Singh family.

5. In 2006, Liberty supported the religious freedom cases of Aisah Azmi, who was suspended by the Headfield Church of England Junior School in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire for wearing the full Muslim veil, or niqab, while working as a teaching assistant and Nadia Eweida, a Christian British Airways check-in worker, who claimed she was forced to take unpaid leave after refusing to remove a small cross from her necklace.