LEADING Muslims have backed a council that suspended a teaching assistant because she refused to remove her veil in the classroom.

Aishah Azmi, 24, a bilingual support worker at a West Yorkshire junior school, insisted on covering her face and mouth.

She was asked to remove the veil during lessons to improve pupils’ communication skills because they were finding it difficult to hear what she was saying.

When she refused, she was suspended and took her local education authority to an employment tribunal. Its ruling is expected within two weeks.

Kirklees local education authority said that it took the action because it had a duty to act in the best interests of the pupils.

The suspension was supported by Shahid Malik, the local Labour MP, local Muslim councillors and the Muslim Council of Britain, all of whom agreed that Muslim women were not required by their religion to cover their heads, let alone their mouths, in the presence of pre-adolescent children.

Most of the pupils at Headfield Church of England Junior School come from families of Pakistani or Indian origin and many are still learning to speak English. An Ofsted report this year criticised the “exceptionally low” standards achieved by pupils at the school, stating that “most difficulties are related to speech and communication problems”.

Inspectors ruled that Headfield was “an inadequate school” whose performance placed it among the worst 5 per cent of schools in the country.

The report noted: “Children’s speaking skills are poor and this holds them back in most aspects of their work.”

Jim Dodds, the council’s cabinet member for education, said that the school had been happy for Mrs Azmi to wear her veil in most areas of the school, including its corridors and staff room.

He added: “This is nothing to do with religion, it’s about what makes practical common sense. We accepted that the veil could be worn anywhere in the school except the classroom.”

“We have a lot of pupils who do not speak English as a first language and you have to be able to see people’s lips move when being taught.”

Mr Malik, MP for Dewsbury, said that the authority and the school had acted responsibly. “It is absolutely critical, when you are dealing with young children, to make sure that they can see your mouth movements, because they are still learning how to speak,” he said.

Last night Mrs Azmi said that she had only insisted on wearing the veil when around male colleagues, adding that her religion required it.

“When I was with a female teacher I taught quite happily at the school without my veil on,” she said. “I was also quite happy not to wear it when I was on the playground or library duty as I knew there would be no male members of staff around.

“The only thing I insisted on was that I was allowed to wear it when I was with a male colleague.” She denied claims that children found her more difficult to understand when her face was veiled.

“Just because you can not see someone’s lips it doesn’t mean you can’t learn. The kids are mostly Muslim anyway so they would never, ever have a problem.”

• Female students at a new Islamic school will be made to wear head scarves regardless of their religion. The Madani High School in Leicester will be required by law to accept 10 per cent of its 600 pupils from non-Muslim backgrounds. But the rules state that all female pupils must cover their head.

  Zainab Elgaziari, the assistant principal, said he did not regard the demand as a problem: “It’s the same as a shirt or tie, it’s just part of our uniform.”

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