Madani Schools Federation

Last updated

Madani Schools Federation
Address
Madani Schools Federation
77 Evington Valley Road

, ,
LE5 5LL

Coordinates 52°37′42″N1°05′58″W / 52.6282°N 1.0994°W / 52.6282; -1.0994
Information
Type Voluntary aided school
Religious affiliation(s) Islam
FounderLIA Trust
Local authority Leicester
HeadteacherRiyaz Laher
Gender Coeducational
Age11to 16
Enrolment900
Colour(s)    grey, pink, black
Website http://www.madani.leicester.sch.uk

Madani Schools Federation is a Muslim secondary school in Leicester, England. Based in the Evington neighbourhood, Madani Schools Federation caters for the city's Muslim population, with 450 places for boys and girls each. The building itself, designed by Leicester firm Pick Everard with an Islamic design including an Arabic-style courtyard. There is also an associated community centre and madrassa.

Contents

The school has also won architectural awards including the Community Benefit award in the regional finals of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors awards in May 2008 and competed in the international finals in the autumn. [1] It is the first state funded Muslim school in the East-Midlands, as 90% of the £18m came from the government, with the Muslim community in Leicester raising the rest. [2] The school has received much press attention as a Muslim secondary school where it is held up as a model for faith schools. [3]

Concerns and criticism

There has been controversy when it was announced that non-Muslim girls would be required to wear the hijab. [4]

The school was criticised after backtracking on an earlier commitments that it would take 10% of its intake from a non-Muslim background. The Headteacher now states that this will only happen once demand from the Muslim community is met. [5] This is in part because in its first year the school received no applications from non-Muslim families. [6]

The school's strict gender segregation policies have also been criticised. The school is divided into two separate wings, one for boys and the other for girls, connected by a central foyer. Boys are taught by male and female staff and girls are only taught by female staff. [7] The school has separate staff rooms for male and female staff and separate dining rooms for boys and girls.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hijab</span> Islamic head covering for women

In modern usage, hijab generally refers to various head coverings conventionally worn by many Muslim women. It is similar to the tichel or snood worn by Orthodox Jewish women, certain headcoverings worn by some Christian women, such as the mantilla, apostolnik and wimple, and the dupatta worn by many Hindu and Sikh women. Whilst a hijab can come in many forms, it often specifically refers to a scarf wrapped around the head, covering the hair, neck and ears but leaving the face visible. The use of the hijab has been on the rise worldwide since the 1970s and is viewed by many Muslims as expressing modesty and faith; it has also been worn for purposes of adornment. There is a consensus among Islamic religious scholars that covering the head is either required or preferred, though some Muslim scholars and activists point out that it is not mandated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools</span> French law

The French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools bans wearing conspicuous religious symbols in French public primary and secondary schools. The law is an amendment to the French Code of Education that expands principles founded in existing French law, especially the constitutional requirement of laïcité: the separation of state and religious activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dress code</span> Clothing code based on event or occasion

A dress code is a set of rules, often written, with regard to what clothing groups of people must wear. Dress codes are created out of social perceptions and norms, and vary based on purpose, circumstances, and occasions. Different societies and cultures are likely to have different dress codes, Western dress codes being a prominent example.

Denbigh High School is an academy school in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. Colin Townsend was Headteacher, following Dame Yasmin Bevan's retirement as Executive Principal and Headteacher at the end of 2014. Donna Neely-Hayes as acting Headteacher, followed Townsend's departure to University of Birmingham School in late 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic scarf controversy in France</span> Controversy over wearing of the hijab in France

In France, there is an ongoing social, political, and legal debate concerning the wearing of the hijab and other forms of Islamic coverings in public. The cultural framework of the controversy can be traced to France's history of colonization in North Africa, but escalated into a significant public debate in 1989 when three girls were suspended from school for refusing to remove their headscarves. That incident, referred to in France as l'affaire du foulard or l'affaire du voile, initially focused the controversy on the wearing of the hijab in French public schools. Because of the wide-ranging social debates caused by the controversy, l'affaire du foulard has been compared to the Dreyfus affair in its impact on French culture.

Gender apartheid is the economic and social sexual discrimination against individuals because of their gender or sex. It is a system enforced by using either physical or legal practices to relegate individuals to subordinate positions. Feminist scholar Phyllis Chesler, professor of psychology and women's studies, defines the phenomenon as "practices which condemn girls and women to a separate and subordinate sub-existence and which turn boys and men into the permanent guardians of their female relatives' chastity". Instances of gender apartheid lead not only to the social and economic disempowerment of individuals, but can also result in severe physical harm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universal School</span> School in Bridgeview, Illinois

Universal School is an Islamic, religious, K-12 private school, that is located in Bridgeview, Illinois, in the Chicago metropolitan area. Students take Islamic Studies, Arabic language, and Quran classes. The school motto is "Where Islam and Education come together." Universal School was officially founded in 1989, and opened on September 4, 1990, to 140 students and 11 faculty members.

Religious clothing is clothing which is worn in accordance with religious practice, tradition or significance to a faith group. It includes clerical clothing such as cassocks, and religious habit, robes, and other vestments. Accessories include hats, wedding rings, crucifixes, etc.

Rabia School was a private Islamic faith school located in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The school was owned and operated by a charitable trust. It was the first Islamic school to offer secondary education in Bedfordshire.

Al-Hijrah School was a voluntary-aided Islamic all-through school based in the Bordesley Green area of Birmingham, England. It was a specialist Science College with 767 pupils aged 4–16. It closed 31 August 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic veiling practices by country</span> Muslim head coverings for women as worn in different countries

Various styles of head coverings, most notably the khimar, hijab, chador, niqab, paranja, yashmak, tudong, shayla, safseri, carşaf, haik, dupatta, boshiya and burqa, are worn by Muslim women around the world, where the practice varies from mandatory to optional or restricted in different majority Muslim and non-Muslim countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex segregation in Iran</span>

Sex segregation in Iran encompasses practices derived from the conservative dogma of Shiite Islam currently taking place in Iran. Most areas of the country are segregated by sex, except universities. In many cities, there are women parks. Sex segregation prohibits males from viewing females, and age of consent laws do not exist, as all sexual activity outside marriage is illegal. UN experts have denounced Iran for enforcing gender apartheid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ibrahim Mogra</span>

Ibrahim Mogra is an imam from Leicester and former Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

Zaytouna Primary School is a coeducational Muslim faith based free school for pupils aged 4 to 11 located in Derby, Derbyshire, England.

Some association football players are Muslims, and their clubs have adapted to their principles.

Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School and Sixth Form College (TIGHS) is a secondary school for girls in Beardwood, Blackburn. It was founded by the charitable trust Tauheedul Islam Faith, Education and Community Trust. It serves as the flagship school of the trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex segregation in Saudi Arabia</span>

Saudi Arabia is the most profoundly gender-segregated nation on Earth. Sexual segregation in Saudi Arabia is a cultural practice and government policy which keeps Saudi wives, sisters and daughters away from contact with male strangers (Non-mahram) and vice versa. However, since Mohammed bin Salman was appointed Crown Prince in 2017, a series of social reforms have been witnessed that created cultural changes, which included putting an end to the gender segregation enforcement. The Saudi gender segregation originated from an extreme concern for female purity and family honour. Social events used to be largely predicated on the separation of men and women; the mixing of non-related men and women at parties and other social gatherings were extremely rare and limited to some of the modern Western-educated families.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim women in sport</span>

Modern Muslim female athletes have achieved success in a variety of sports, including volleyball, tennis, association football, fencing, and basketball. In the 2016 Summer Olympics, fourteen women from Muslim-majority countries won medals, participating in a wide range of sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aliyah Saleem</span> British author and secular activist

Aaliyah Saleem, is a British secular education campaigner, writer and market researcher. She is an ex-Muslim atheist, feminist and humanist activist, and co-founder of advocacy group Faith to Faithless. She has also written under the pseudonym of Laylah Hussain.

At the beginning of February 2022, a dispute pertaining to school uniforms was reported in the Indian state of Karnataka, when some Muslim students of a junior college who wanted to wear hijab to classes were denied entry on the grounds that it was a violation of the college's uniform policy which was also followed by the other religion students as well. Over the following weeks, the dispute spread to other schools and colleges across the state, with groups of Hindu students staging counter-protests by demanding to wear saffron scarves. On 5 February, the Karnataka government issued an order stating that uniforms must be worn compulsorily where policies exist and no exception can be made for the wearing of the hijab. Several educational institutions cited this order and denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the hijab.

References

  1. "High School Hopes". Leicestermercury.co.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2018.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. Multi Faith schools BBC report October 2007
  3. "The Times & The Sunday Times". Thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2018.(subscription required)
  4. "New policy at Madani High School requires non-Muslim girls to wear hijabs". Wikinews. 14 October 2006.
  5. "And How Does Madani High School Fit The Community Cohesion Agenda? | National Secular Society". Secularism.org.uk. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
  6. Islamic School Criticised. "Leicester - Faith - Islamic School Criticised". BBC. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
  7. "Divided by faith: inside the segregated Madani schools". Channel4.com. 12 April 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2018.