WORLD ARTS AND CULTURE

WORLD ARTS AND CULTURE: JUNE 2004

'Position impossible': Yvonne Spencer, representing the student, told the court Miss Begum's chances of passing her GCSEs were being adversely affected. The school's treatment amounted to a constructive exclusion because it had made Miss Begum's position impossible, she said. Ms Spencer said official guidance from the Department for Education and Skills said it was not appropriate to treat uniform disputes as a matter so serious that a student be severely disciplined. It also made it clear to schools they had to be sensitive of religious requirements. "This has been a constructive and unlawful exclusion," said Ms Spencer. "There has been no lawful basis for this exclusion for wearing clothes for religious reasons."

'Devout beliefs': Mediation had been proposed and Miss Begum had agreed to wear the jilbab in the school's colours, said Ms Spencer. "She is very happy to be identified as a member of the school community. But what she is not prepared to do is sacrifice her devout religious beliefs." Defending the school, Simon Birks said there had been no breach of Miss Begum's religious freedom under the European Convention on Human Rights, not least because she had chosen that school over others. "If you choose to go a school with a uniform policy, that is your option," he said. "It is not an infringement of your rights that the school is unprepared to change its policies in order to accommodate your religious views. "If you do not like it, you can go elsewhere." Mr Birks said the school had acted entirely within its duties towards Miss Begum, not least because it had widely consulted Islamic scholars for advice, including those at the country's largest mosque in London. "That was an entirely reasonable course of action to have followed. They were not imposing their own views of the religious requirements. They were making a decision based on what had been placed before them." Mr Justice Bennett reserved judgment in the case until a later date.

02 Jun 2004 from Weekly Telegraph

An old Mayan City of a Major Historical Importance Discovered

Mayan Masks

Mayan Masks (Photo)

Photo: These stucco masks, each measuring five meters by three (15 feet by nine), are among the most stunning discoveries from Cital. It's thought from the masks' layout that there are two more nearby. Picture: AFP

An Italian archeologist said Tuesday he had uncovered ancient objects that show an unexplored site in Guatemala's Peten region to be one of the most significant preclassic Mayan cities ever found. "I think Cival was one of the largest cities of the Preclassic Maya, maybe housing 10,000 people at its peak," the archeologist from Nashville's Vanderbilt University said at a news conference. Francisco Estrada-Belli and his team discovered intact two large masks and jade objects used for rituals in the central square of the city, named Cival, which date to around 150 B.C. Before being abandoned, the city may have outshone the neighboring site, Holmul, which was at the height of its civilization a thousand years later during the Classic Maya period, he said. "Cival probably was abandoned after a violent attack, probably by a larger power such as Tikal."

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