Muslim school where library books said husbands could beat wives to be taken over by UK govt

A nine-year-old boy had died at the school in March

The UK government has ordered a state-funded Muslim school to be taken over in Birmingham, where a boy had died earlier on in March, and an earlier inspection found books which said husbands could beat their wives.

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) visited the Al-Hijrah school after nine-year-old Mohammed Ismaeel Ashraf suffered an allergic reaction and collapsed in the school. The boy had been taken to the hospital but died shortly afterwards, the Independent reported.

A report from June said the school was "inadequate" and questioned the safety of students saying that pupils were not "sufficiently" safe and staff lacked training in case of medical emergencies.

Furthermore, an inspection that took place earlier on founds books in the school library which said that husbands were allowed to beat up their wives and could even force them into having sex.



Currently, the school is in the midst of a long legal battle to segregate both genders.

Chief inspector of Ofsted, Amanda Spielman, told the Sunday Times that she was " deeply concerned about the idea that total segregation of children within a mixed school is acceptable.”

In November last year, the High Court had ruled that Ofsted inspectors were punishing the school wrongly on the assumption that segregating the children would amount to unlawful discrimination.

“There is no evidence in this case that segregation particularly disadvantages women,” the judge said.

However, Ofsted in still appealing the decision and is now awaiting a final ruling on the issue to be passed by a Court of Appeal.

 

This article originally appeared on The Independent.