The spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has said on Monday that he personally has no problem with Muslim women wearing a veil, although he does admit that there are certain questions over practicality.
The issue has been the centre of a heated debate over the past few weeks, following the suspension a Muslim teaching assistant who refused to remove her veil during class despite complaints from children that they could not understand her through the veil.
The debate has become so central in the British media that even Prime Minister Tony Blair has spoken out on the issue, last week saying that the veil could be seen as a "mark of separation".
However, now joining the debate Dr Williams who has been on a two-week tour of China, has told a press conference in Beijing: "My own bottom line is that there ought to be no problem about the visibility of people proclaiming their religious allegiance.
"There may be any number of practical questions about the degree of veiling that is socially acceptable, and I don't think there are quick answers for that. But the bottom line would be about acceptability."
Last Thursday a tribunal ruled that the teaching assistant, Aishah Azmi, had not been discriminated against by the school, although it did award her a small sum for her distress and "hurt".If there's a practical question about, for example, the visibility of the teacher to hearing impaired children, or children with behavioural difficulties, where you need to see the face, that's a question that has to be faced in those terms, not in terms of what is religiously acceptable in public.
Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
Headfield Church of England Junior School in Dewsbury had said Azmi should remove the veil so the pupils could see her lips when speaking, as a number found it difficult to comprehend her words with the veil covering her mouth.
However, when she refused,the school suspended her, making clear there was absolutely no religious motivation behind the decision but rather was acting simply in the best interests of the students' education.
Dr Williams concluded: "If there's a practical question about, for example, the visibility of the teacher to hearing impaired children, or children with behavioural difficulties, where you need to see the face, that's a question that has to be faced in those terms, not in terms of what is religiously acceptable in public."
