A public boys’ school in Sydney has been accused of encouraging disrespect for women and kowtowing to religious minority groups with its decision to permit Muslim students to decline to shake hands with women for religious reasons.
The handshaking protocol, devised by the Hurstville Boys’ Campus of Georges River College, after consulting with parents, students and staff, was tested recently at an awards ceremony, when women invited to present awards were told some students would not shake hands.
The practice is based on the ancient Islamic hadith: “It is better to be stabbed in the head with an iron needle than to touch the hand of a woman who is not permissible to you.” It has been endorsed by the NSW Education Department, which says it is up to school principals to assess the needs of their communities when implementing diversity policies.
While some commentators have denounced the controversial protocol, claiming that it has no place in a secular education system, NSW politicians have gone to ground.
Liberal MP for Oatley, Mark Coure, was at the Hurstville Boys’ Campus awards ceremony in December but declined to comment. State Education Minister Rob Stokes also declined to comment, a spokeswoman saying he “has nothing to add to the department’s earlier statement”. Opposition education spokesman Jihad Dib, a former school principal who is a Muslim, also declined to comment.
Jeremy Sammut, a senior research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, questioned the Education Department allowing a school to introduce “a divisive” policy.
“This is an issue of misplaced cultural sensitivity by the education authority that does both the broader community and the Islamic community a disservice,” Dr Sammut said.
“And it doesn’t say much about the recent claims (by Muslim activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied last week) that Islam is a feminist religion.”
Peter Wallace, an aspiring independent politician and former Hurstville Boys student, described the policy as “disgusting”.
“This is teaching Muslim boys ... that women are not their equal. It’s not multiculturalism — its gender segregation,” he said.
Georges River College principal Joanne Jarvis did not return calls or emails. Ms Jarvis is active on Twitter, where she describes herself as a feminist, and last week weighed in on the fiery episode of ABC’s Q&A when Ms Abdel-Magied went head-to-head with Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, tweeting: “Lambie ignorance rendered the panel gobsmacked.”
As The Australian reported yesterday, many senior Australian Muslim figures consider the hadith does not prohibit handshaking with the opposite sex, and is open to many interpretations. It is understood to be more commonly adhered to within the conservative Salafi and Wahhabi Muslim communities, where men and women refrain from shaking hands with each other. However Keysar Trad, president of the Islamic Federation of Islamic Councils, said many Muslim scholars viewed the hadith as a denouncement of “unwelcome harassment” and it was not an issue of sexism.
Lydia Shelley, a lawyer and Muslim community advocate, dismissed concerns over the school’s handshaking protocol, saying “if you seriously want to address the issue of gender inequality ... you could focus on Australia’s national shame of violence against women”. By comparison, she said, the handshake issue “pales in significance”.