Furrowing through an old newspaper lying about (“thelondonpaper” 21 Feb 2007), I read an article entitled “Pupil loses veil battle.” This polemic subject (integrating Muslims in Western cultures) is certainly grounds for much heated debate and one feels that one has to tread very lightly. This particular situation in London involved a 12-year-old Muslim girl who went to court, aided by her father, to overthrow her school’s ban on the right to wear the niqab full-face veil. The court rejected her plea. Interestingly, the article said that the girl’s identity has been protected – not that the accompanying photograph was particularly revealing (the attached photo is not her, but is more or less similar to the one in the newspaper). She argued that the ban “breached her right to freedom…of thought, conscience…” A perplexing view of freedom in my opinion.
Freedom — another view?
Minter Dial
Minter Dial is an international professional speaker, author & consultant on Leadership, Branding and Digital Strategy. After a successful international career at L’Oréal, Minter Dial returned to his entrepreneurial roots and has spent the last ten years helping senior management teams and Boards to adapt to the new exigencies of the digitally enhanced marketplace. He has worked with world-class organisations to help activate their brand strategies, and figure out how best to integrate new technologies, digital tools, devices and platforms. Above all, Minter works to catalyse a change in mindset and dial up transformation. Minter received his BA in Trilingual Literature from Yale University (1987) and gained his MBA at INSEAD, Fontainebleau (1993). His books include Heartificial Empathy, Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence, bowed in December 2018 and won the Book Excellence Award 2019 as well as being shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2019. It's available in Audiobook, Kindle and Paperback. He is also co-author of Futureproof (Pearson, Sep 2017) and sole author of The Last Ring Home (Myndset Press, Nov 2016), a book and documentary film, both of which have won awards and critical acclaim. Minter's latest book, You Lead, How being yourself makes you a better leader, published by Kogan Page, won the Business Book Award 2022 in the category of Leadership. It's easy to inquire about booking Minter Dial here. View all posts by Minter Dial
New Uniform Guidance out of the UK this morning confirmed the school’s right to ban the niqab. As the BBC reports, the school argued the veil made communication between teachers and pupils difficult and thus hampered learning. This is a little tenuous, in my eyes, as you might be tempted to just open the aperture a bit. Isn’t opening the mind the whole point of school after all.