LONDON, 3 March 2005 — A 16-year-old British Muslim girl has won the right to wear the jilbab to school after a two-year legal battle. Appeal Court judges ruled that Shabina Begum was unlawfully excluded by Denbigh High School in Luton, Bedforshire for wearing a traditional Muslim gown.

Lord Justice Brooke said it was Shabina’s right to manifest her religion. He also called for more guidance for schools on complying with the Human Rights Act.

Shabina called the ruling a victory for Muslims who wanted to “preserve their identity and values”. The school said it had lost on a technicality although critics question how it reached such a conclusion given the clear ruling.

Shabina, whose parents are both dead, had worn a regulation shalwar kameez (trousers and tunic) until September 2002 when she informed the school authorities she intended to wear a full-length gown called a jilbab.

Speaking outside the Court of Appeal Shabina, who now attends a school where the jilbab is allowed, said Denbigh High School’s action could not be viewed merely as a local decision taken in isolation.

“Rather it was a consequence of an atmosphere that has been created in Western societies post 9/11, an atmosphere in which Islam has been made a target for vilification in the name of the ‘war on terror’,” she said.

“It is amazing that in the so-called free world I have to fight to wear this attire.”

Lawyers at the Children’s Legal Center which represented Shabina said the judgment was a “landmark victory” which could have wide-ranging consequences for the freedom to manifest religious beliefs and a “significant impact” on school dress codes.

In their ruling the Appeal Court judges said the school had a right to set a school uniform policy but nobody had considered Shabina had a right recognized by English law.

The onus lay on the school to justify any interference with that right, the judges ruled.

Lord Justice Brooke said: “Instead, it started from the premise that its uniform policy was there to be obeyed: If the claimant did not like it, she could go to a different school.”

Although Shabina had won her case, she no longer sought an order from the court that the school take her back and no longer sought any damages, he added.