Welsh-Sikh teenager wins right to wear kada to school

LONDON: An Anglo Indian teenager has won a landmark victory in the British High Court upholding her right to wear the kada to school as a symbol of her Sikh faith. Tuesday\'s victory for Sarika Watkins-Singh, who is half Welsh and half-Sikh, is being seen as groundbreaking as it sets a new benchmark for religious expression in public space. The British ruling comes just four years after France banned the conspicuous display of symbols of faith such as Christian crucifixes, Jewish skullcaps and Sikh turbans in schools in an attempt to preserve its famously secular ethos. But the British High Court judge ruled that Singh\'s Welsh school had breached her religious and racial rights and unfairly burdened the teenager\'s freedom of religious expression. Within moments of her victory, Singh said she was delighted she could attest to "being a proud Welsh and Punjabi Sikh girl". She said, in a markedly Welsh accent, ""I am overwhelmed by the outcome and it\'s marvellous to know that the long journey I\'ve been on has finally come to an end. I\'m so happy to know that no one else will go through what my family and I have gone through". The kada judgement is expected to pave the way for similar cases in western Europe, with several British schools banning the crucifix, the hijab , and the yarmulke as overtly religious symbols of faith. Legal experts said that Singh\'s High Court triumph appeared to challenge the "confining" interpretation of secularism, more common on the European continent. Singh will now be able to return to her school in south Wales wearing the kada . The teenager was excluded from school in November 2007 for breaking its "no jewellery" rule. She is the only Sikh in the 600-strong school. During her hearing, the court was told that the bangle was as potent a symbol of faith to Singh as it was to English cricketer Monty Panesar, who is also a devout Sikh and wears the bangle for every game. The teenager had told teachers at her all-girls school that she would not take off the kada because it was a reminder to her to behave well. She was suspended after the governing body ruled she was not allowed to wear the symbol. Singh was supported in her fight for freedom of religious expression by the civil rights group Liberty, which argued her school had breached race relations, equality and human rights laws. Liberty said the school\'s decision to exclude the teenager contravened a 25-year-old decision by the Law Lords – Britain\'s highest court – to allow Sikh children to wear items representing their faith to school, including turbans school. Singh\'s lawyer, Anna Fairclough, said Tuesday\'s judgement was one of "common sense (making) clear that you must have a very good reason before you interfere with someone\'s religious freedom and ethnic identity. No such reason was forthcoming in this case". The lawyer added "It\'s a shame that each generation has to fight the same battles. This battle was already fought 25 years ago and Sarika shouldn\'t have had to go through that again. Our great British traditions of religious tolerance and race equality have been rightly upheld today. The courts made clear that schools schools should protect pupils from being bullied and not ostracise them for expressing their beliefs." Singh\'s mother, Sanita, said she was extremely proud of her daughter for standing up for her faith. Commentators said Singh\'s case had echoes of another recent fight by a Christian pupil Lydia Playfoot, who made an unsuccessful challenge in the High Court against her school\'s prohibition on chastity rings. Overtly religious symbols of faith have become a hotly-contested issue in Britain and other western European countries with large multi-religious minority communities. Germany, Belgium, France and Holland have disparate but more stringent rules on conspicuous display of religious symbols in schools and government offices. But many believe the British kada judgement may go some way towards tempering the trend towards prescribing the limits of religious expression.

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