The
teachers were sacked last year by the West Croydon school, which issued a
warning to all female teachers - Muslim and non-Muslim - to wear a hijab head
scarf or face the sack. One of the teachers has taken a case of unfair
dismissal to the civil court while the other's claim is being heard by Fair
Work Australia.
School
principal Kadir Emniyet yesterday defended the school's policy, which he said
he had discussed with all 42 teachers. He said "90 per cent of them are happy to adhere to the policy".
The policy insists non-Muslim women to wear a head scarf, not
a traditional hijab, and was installed in 1998 but dropped in 2010 by the
former principal and board. It was reinstated at the start of this year with a
verbal only order to staff.
Mr
Emniyet, who started in his position at the college this year, said male
teachers who breached the staff dress code - for example, by wearing shorts -
would face the same three-strikes warning system as female teachers who did not
adhere to the headscarf policy.
 |
| Principal Kadir Emniyet. |
AFIC
assistant secretary Keysar Trad said he had spoken with Mr Khan. "We didn't get in to the discussion
about the hijab ... it was more of a discussion about the disagreement with us
on the policy," Mr Trad said. "We
have our executive meeting on Saturday and I'm sure the matter will be raised
there."
Mr Trad
said AFIC could not force the school's governing body to change its policy,
despite it being at odds with the federation's policy. "Understand that
this is not an across the board issue ... this is an issue that has arisen due
to the policy of one school," he said.
"I personally don't believe in imposing the scarf on
people. We have Muslim and non-Muslim staff in our schools who do not wear it.
The only requirement we have is for teachers to dress modestly."
Mr Trad
did not rule out AFIC imposing sanctions on the Islamic College of SA but said
there should be more clarity on the issue after Saturday's meeting.
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