LONDON (Reuters):
A TEENAGE Muslim girl will learn today whether she has won her legal battle for the right to wear full Islamic dress at school.
Britain's highest court, the House of Lords, will give its decision on an appeal by Shabina Begum against her school's refusal to let her wear a jilbab, which covers the whole body except for hands and face.
The school, Denbigh High in Luton, north of London, is challenging an Appeal Court ruling that Begum's human rights had been breached by the ban.
Five law lords, headed by former Lord Chief Justice Lord Bingham, heard the case last month and reserved judgement until today.
The ruling in March 2005 delighted groups representing Britain's 1.6 million Muslims and contrasted with France's hardline approach to the issue.
France has banned all conspicuous religious clothing in state schools, including Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses.
Begum, now 17, had been sent home from school and ordered to change her clothes in September 2002 after she decided to start wearing the jilbab.
Her lawyers had argued that the school's refusal to let her attend lessons in the Islamic attire breached her human rights and amounted to unlawful exclusion from school.
