It's our turn now

The NSW Premier, Bob Carr, has defended a Shiite Muslim girl who won an exemption to wear a mantoo tunic to school. Yasamin Alttahir, 17, was not dressed outrageously like pop star Britney Spears and should be left alone to continue her studies, Mr Carr said today.

"She's not representing herself as Britney Spears, and that ought to be acknowledged," he said. "She dresses conservatively. She should be allowed to go on with her studies and go on with her life."

Mr Carr said he didn't want Yasamin "to be upset" by all the media attention. The issue has been hotly debated on talkback radio since the Herald broke the story on Saturday. Radio host Alan Jones has repeatedly called her a "troublemaker" in his morning radio broadcasts.

The Auburn Girls High student landed in trouble after refusing a request by the school principal to stop wearing the body-length religious tunic. The school initially punished the girl with detention, but later issued her with an exemption.

Thanks to SMH

MathewK

I agree she definitely is a trouble maker, this tunic is not even a religious requirement, just a cultural choice, the education department is simply pigeon livered, spineless, weak kneed and politically correct.

So what is this girl going to do when she grows up and decides to become a police officer, firewoman, ambulance officer, nurse? Wear this outfit because of religious reasons. Hows she going to chase the bad guys down, halt, run slower you must respect my religion.

Say my religion is satanism, in my obscure texts my children are supposed to wear snake skins and carry bags made out of fresh cat skin, will the bend-over-back-wards-for-muslims, Bob Carr defend our rights? Given his record of broken promises, I shall look elsewhere for support.

Since the good premier doesn't want Yasamin to be "UPSET" by all this, maybe he should arrange the school to teach her in arabic, only female teachers perhaps, clear out the pool when she feels like going for a swim, ban pork and pig jokes, declare the school a no-war zone, maybe provide history text books from the Islamic perspective, oh my, we wouldn't want to offend anyone, would we, our weak knees and jellyfish spines can't take the pressure.

So if other school children decide to wear full black, some gothic type outfit, what's wrong with that, grow their hair long, wear black makeup, because they worship some bloody thirsty god from the amazon jungle, why not. Why should other muslim children not wear the full black garments, why only this school, come on everybody, lets stuff it all up, anyone wears what they want to wear, this garment, that garment, NO garment, we must cater for nudists as well.

The french had a similar problem a while back, it seems its our turn to make a stand.

Update

Apparently this is old news, in some schools in Sydney, principals are quite lax when it comes to uniforms, there are so many variations and all cultures are catered for, the only consistent thing is that the schools emblem is displayed on all the garments, however the emblems are not displayed on all garments, this is the rule, but you don't have to follow the rule, there are some rules, but there are also no rules. It's all very confusing really, but none the less no students are discriminated against.

I say we dress all our daughters in the full burqa, all black, the only thing exposed is the eyes, then send them all to school, the education department will be so weak at the knees and will instantly fall over themselves to accommodate/understand our children. Then all the parents gather at the school to watch these politically correct educators try to take a role call.

Then at exam time, we unleash our unique brand of politically correct chaos.