Muslim teacher says veil was not a problem

LONDON, Oct 15 (Reuters) A Muslim teaching assistant suspended for wearing a veil in school said the garment had never been a problem for pupils at the Heathfield Church of England Junior School in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Aishah Azmi told BBC radio that pupils had ''never complained'' and said there had never been an issue about children having difficulty in understanding her talk through the garment.

She said many of the pupils at the school were Muslim and would have been used to seeing their mothers wearing the veil.

The BBC said Kirkless Council had asked her to take off her veil in class, but she told the Today programme she disputed their version of events.

Azmi said she had always been willing to take her veil off in front of children, but had refused to do so in the presence of male colleagues.

A employment tribunal will consider the case.

The issue of Muslim women wearing veils was thrust into the spotlight last week when Jack Straw said Muslim women who wore full veils made community relations difficult.

He said he would prefer that women did not wear them because they acted as a ''visible statement of separation and difference.'' About 100 Muslim protesters shouted at Straw, a former foreign secretary and now leader of the house, as he arrived to hold a surgery at his constituency in Blackburn, Lancashire yesterday.

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