London: Amidst controversy over House of Commons leader Jack Straw's remarks, a Muslim teacher in London has been suspended after she refused to take off her veil while in class.
Twenty four-year-old Aishah Azmi, a teaching assistant in West Yorkshire, was told she could wear the veil in corridors and the staff room at Headfield Church of England junior school in Dewsbury, but must remove it when teaching.
The school deemed face-to-face communication essential to her role as a bilingual support worker. She was suspended after she refused to take off her veil while in class, a spokesman for Kirklees Council said.
The school, in its recent report had said that the first languages of most pupils were Punjabi, Gujarati and Urdu, and that standards of English were "poor". This "holds them back in most aspects of their work," the report said.
While confirming the suspension, the spokesman said the Council was awaiting the verdict of an employment tribunal.
The incident follows Straw's controversial remarks that he would prefer Muslim women not to wear veils when they meet him.
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