Durban- The parents of Muslim learners at two Johannesburg schools are demanding that their religious rights not be infringed after their children were allegedly singled out for growing a beard and wearing a hijabs (headscarves).
Social activist Yusuf Abramjee recently tweeted on the alleged claims of Islamaphobia at Ashton International College and Jeppe High School for Girls, tagging Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi.
Abramjee said the parents of a Grade 8 learner at the Benoni college have accused the school of being Islamophobic, and reported the matter to the Gauteng education department.
“When they enrolled their son at the school he had not reached puberty, therefore he had no facial hair. Once he reached the age of puberty, he chose to follow the Hanafi School of Islamic Jurisprudence, which obliges all males who have reached the age of puberty to grow a beard.”
He added that as per the college’s policy, the parents completed a concession form together with a letter from an Islamic institution requesting their son be allowed grow a beard in accordance with the Islamic faith.
“The school declined the application or request, and allegedly gave the parents an ultimatum that he either shaves off his beard or leaves the school.”
Abramjee claimed that during a meeting with the college, it admitted to the parents that it allowed learners of other religions to wear “symbols of their religion”.
They, however, allegedly “refused to allow Muslim learners to do the same”.
The parents further claimed that the college declined admission to female learners who wear hijabs, “despite there being no mention of it in their code of conduct”.
It also allegedly insisted the girls remove their hijabs if they decided to wear them.
Meanwhile, a disciplinary hearing meant to take place on Saturday over female learners wearing hijabs at Jeppe High School for Girls was postponed.
Seven Muslim families claimed their daughters were prevented from expressing their freedom of religion alongside their school spirit.
The school’s policy on hijabs has been debated - particularly on social media - for several months, with Jeppe Girls’ allegedly banning learners from wearing them with the official school blazer or school colours.
However, the girls are given the option to wear their hijabs with a black cloak, which would cover up their uniforms.
But the learners were recently told they would have to attend a disciplinary hearing for “repeated dress code infringements”, and “disregarding educators’ instructions”.
Since the issuing of the disciplinary notices, the pro bono department at law firm Cliffe Dekker Hoffmeyr had become involved, representing each of the learners in a bid to declare the disciplinary hearings unlawful.
In letters to, among others, Lesufi, the principal and its school governing body, the firm said the disciplinary proceedings were discriminatory and its code of conduct unconstitutional.
The head of the firm’s pro bono department Jacquie Cassette and senior associate Tricia Erasmus argued in their letters that even the notice of the hearings was defective.
They suggest the notice failed to detail the alleged offences, what punishment the learners faced, and that they had failed to give the learners sufficient time to prepare for the hearings.
They also alleged that the hearings were unlawful as they “flow from a code of conduct which is unconstitutional and unlawful in so far as it fails to accommodate affected learners who wish to follow the dictates of their religion without, at the same time, being denied their rights to equality, dignity, equal respect and to be identified with the school”.
The letter implies that in recent months, the Gauteng department of education expressly instructed the SGB to allow the affected learners to wear a hijab with their uniform until the issue - namely the school’s code of conduct and whether it should be changed - was resolved.
“The reasonable conclusion is that there are individuals at the school who seek to harass the learners, knowing full well that a dispute exists as to the code of conduct itself,” the letter reads.
Cassette told POST’s sister newspaper, the Saturday Star that the school’s code of conduct contributed to “othering” the Muslim learners and that her clients were trying to find a way to allow the children to express their religion and their love of the school.
“Our clients are still willing to co-operate to find an amicable way forward with the school to revise the code of conduct.”
The disciplinary hearing was later postponed.
Gauteng department of education spokesperson Steve Mabona said the meeting would be scheduled for next week after the school recess.
He said the SGB and parent body agreed in principle to amend the code of conduct not to be in contravention with the Constitution.
Attempts to get comment from the schools at the time of publication were unsuccessful.