socialmedian: Conflicting rights: who's the victim?

Add News Flash

User-submitted headlines for this story

Clips

Conflicting rights: who's the victim?

Source: observer.guardian.co.uk

Nov 03, 2009

Summary

The Human Rights Act on the equal opportunities frontline, should the religious be allowed to practice discrimination?

There is a power struggle going on within the Human Rights Act, and the frontline combatants are an unlikely collection of teachers, judges and registrars of births, deaths and marriages.

These people have different jobs but similarly strongly-held religious beliefs. On the face of it all jobs should accommodate such beliefs, and incompatible ones are likely to be self-selecting. A devout Muslim may choose not to work in a night-club, for example, or a Hindu in a beef factory.

What happens though, when jobs which seem compatible with religious belief turn out not to be. Take for example the case in 2007 of Aishah Azmi, a Muslim language support teacher, who was helping children at a Dewsbury school to learn English as an additional language. She wore a hijab, which covered her face. The school required her to remove it, and produced evidence that language support is more effective when a teacher's face is visible.

Or the case last year of Andrew

...Read the full article

Comments (0)

Add Your Comment