Could you imagine a ruling like this in Canada???

Given the latest ruling on the Kirpan issue by our Supreme Court, one doubts schools could ever ban islamic gowns.

schoolgirl who was refused permission to wear a full-length Islamic gown in class was not deprived of the right to manifest her religion, five law lords ruled yesterday.

The House of Lords allowed an appeal by Denbigh High School, in Luton, against a unanimous ruling by the Court of Appeal last March in favour of Shabina Begum, 17.

Lord Bingham said it would be "irresponsible" for any court to overrule the school's judgment "on a matter as sensitive as this".

The power to devise a school uniform had been given to the school staff and governors for the "compelling reason" that they were best placed to exercise it, the senior law lord said, and he saw no reason to disturb their decision.

School rules permitted the shalwar kameez, loose trousers under a smock-like dress worn by some Muslim, Hindu and Sikh girls.

But Shabina was sent home when, aged 13, she arrived wearing a jilbab, a long coat-like garment that "concealed, to a greater extent than the shalwar kameez, the contours of the female body".

The school "had taken immense pains to devise a uniform policy that respected Muslim beliefs but did so in an inclusive, unthreatening and uncompetitive way," Lord Bingham continued. "The rules laid down were as far from being mindless as uniform rules could ever be. The school had enjoyed a period of harmony and success to which the uniform policy was thought to contribute."