2 June 2011
Maputo — Mozambican Education Minister Zeferino Martins has suspended from school a student named Fatima Khalifa who insisted on wearing the Islamic burqa to her classes in a secondary school in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
The burqa is an all-enveloping black cloak. With the exception of a slit for the eyes, it hides the wearer’s entire body and face from the rest of society. Although about 18 per cent of the Mozambican population (and considerably more in the northern provinces) are muslims, very few indeed wear the burqa.
Indeed Fatima Khalifa was the first reported case of a girl wearing a burqa to school. Her unusual garb infuriated teachers at the Fraternidade Secondary School in the Cabo Delgado provincial capital, Pemba, and they refused to teach classes containing her. She insisted that she was in her rights to use a burqa.
The impasse was only broken by the Minister himself, on a visit to Cabo Delgado. Cited by the independent television station STV, Martins said he was suspending Khalifa because wearing the burka violated the fundamental principles governing state-run schools.
He pointed out that, under the Mozambican constitution, the state and its institutions are secular. There is clear separation between the state and all forms of religion, which belong to the private sphere. The lay nature of the state meant that students could not wear burqas in state schools.
Khalifa regards the decision as unjust, and has promised to try to overturn the Minister’s ruling through the courts.
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Student Who Wore Burqa Suspended From School