School backed by Blair in veil row
Tuesday, 17 Oct 2006 17:43
Tony Blair described veils as a "mark of separation"
Tony Blair has said he supports the decision of a West Yorkshire council to suspend a Muslim teacher for refusing to remove her veil.
Aisah Azmi, 24, was suspended from her job as classroom assistant at Headfield Church of England School after children complained they had difficulty understanding her through her niqab.
And speaking today from Downing Street at his first monthly briefing since the summer break, the prime minister said that Kirklees council "should be able to take that decision".
"I do support the authority in the way they've handled this," he said, adding "difficult though these issues are; they have to be raised".
"In most major countries in Europe a debate similar to this is now going on; the whole question of how to deal with integration.
"I think we need a way of having this debate, because it's there in every village, town and city in the British nation," Mr Blair explained.
The row over veils was sparked originally by leader of the house Jack Straw, who wrote in his local paper that he asks Muslim women to remove their veils when visiting his constituency office.
And today Mr Blair appeared to add weight to this side of the debate by describing veils as a "mark of separation" that make "people from outside the community feel uncomfortable".
Stressing that a balance between "preserving a distinctive identity and integration" was needed, the prime minister added: "No-one wants to say that people don't have the right to do it. That is to take it too far. But I think we need to confront this issue about how we integrate people properly into our society."
At the weekend government minister Phil Woolas, whose brief includes race relations, called on Kirklees council to sack Ms Azmi for refusing to remove her veil in the presence of male teachers.