A group of human rights organisations and individuals have called on the ministers for schools and equality to challenge schools which compel girls to wear hijab.

A joint letter co-ordinated by the National Secular Society call on Paul Waugh and Bridget Phillipson to “prevent all state-funded schools from compelling or pressuring pupils to wear hijab, or conform to any other sexist religious dress codes”.

The letter follows Barnet Council’s decision to grant publicly funded status to Barnet Hill Academy, a former independent Islamic school which requires girls to wear hijab from the age of seven.

“All schools have a duty to ‘actively promote’ individual liberty, to ensure young people leave school prepared for life in modern Britain,” the letter says.

“In our view, forcing a child to wear the hijab is entirely at odds with this fundamental British value and with wider human rights norms on children’s rights, including their right to freedom of religion or belief, their developing autonomy, and their right to equal treatment regardless of sex.”

The letter is signed by 12 groups and individuals including Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Faith Matters which launched the anti-Muslim hate crime watchdog Tell MAMA; and former Labour councillor Amina Lone.

Letter highlights role of hijab in abuse of Sara Sharif

Following public outrage, Barnet Hill Academy changed its uniform policy to specify the hijab is not compulsory for “non-Muslim students”.

But the letter says this “continues to leave girls whose families are Muslim obliged to cover their hair, regardless of their personal views”.

It says it is “as a matter of deep concern that state-funded schools are being permitted to impose the hijab on young girls”, given their “implicit sexualisation of children”.

It calls compulsory hijab policies “particularly disturbing” considering the current situations in Afghanistan and Iran, where “millions of women are fighting for their right not to follow Islamic dress codes”. In 2022, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran’s ‘morality police’ after being violently arrested for not wearing hijab ‘correctly’.

The letter highlights how women and girls in the UK who do not conform to religious or cultural ideas about women’s ‘modesty’ have been subjected to violence. In 2024, Muhammed Hassan assaulted three women in Bradford for not wearing “traditional Asian dress”.

The letter also references the case of 10-year-old Sara Sharif, who was murdered by her father and stepmother after years of violent abuse. Sara’s murderers used the hijab to hide the wounds they were inflicting on her.

The letter also raises concerns about Nancy Reuben Primary School, a formerly independent Orthodox Jewish faith school which Barnet Council approved for state funding last year. The school’s “dress code” says women attending the school site must not wear trousers, sleeves which expose the armpit, or necklines lower than “4 fingers from the collar bone”.

The letter said requiring women to conform to sexist dress codes on school premises is “a highly inappropriate policy in a publicly-funded school, which is subject to the public sector equality duty”.

NSS: Forcing girls to wear hijab “sends entirely the wrong message”

NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: “We are alarmed that Barnet Council and the Secretary of State for Education approved these faith schools to convert from independent status to state-funded, despite these sexist, divisive and regressive dress codes.

“At a time of rising concerns around misogyny and ideologies promoting violence against women and girls in schools, forcing girls to wear hijab and enforcing religious ‘modesty codes’ in schools sends entirely the wrong message.

“We therefore call on ministers to ensure education policy empowers girls and upholds their human rights.”

The letter is available here.