One of Britain’s first state-funded Islamic schools is to be the subject of an appeal against a court ruling that it was guilty of sex discrimination by separating girls and boys from the age of nine for lessons, breaks and clubs.
Al-Hijrah, a school for 4 to 16-year-olds in Birmingham — where inspectors found books saying a man could beat his wife — has been told that pending the appeal it has to obey this month’s Court of Appeal ruling and allow boys and girls to mix freely.
The school has informed parents that there will be “no immediate changes”, however. The appeal to the Supreme Court will be lodged by the Association of Muslim Schools on behalf of Al-Hijrah. About 25 other faith schools are understood to be affected by the ruling. They include around 10 state-funded Jewish schools.
Stephen Evans, campaigns director for the National Secular Society, said: “Any government seriously concerned about gender equality would not allow this to happen — let alone hand over taxpayers’ money to fund it.”