A survey found a fifth of 800 primary schools, including Church of England primaries, now list the hijab in their uniform policy (file pic)
Girls as young as five are allowed to wear hijabs as part of approved primary school uniforms, it has been revealed.
This is despite the fact a hijab is usually only worn by young women after puberty and in front of men for modesty reasons – not by primary school children.
Campaigners have said it should be ‘fiercely resisted’ and claimed it could ‘sexualise’ young children.
A survey by The Sunday Times found a fifth [18 per cent] of 800 primary schools, including Church of England primaries, now list the hijab in their uniform policy.
Across England’s 17,000 primary schools the figure is likely to run into thousands.
In Birmingham 46 per cent of 72 primary schools whose websites were checked had the hijab in their written online uniform policy.
In Tower Hamlets 34 per cent of 68 primaries had an online headscarf policy and in Luton the figure was 36 per cent.
Campaigners have warned against the rising trend of young children wearing the hijab.
Aisha Ali-Khan, a Muslim feminist campaigner and a teacher, told MailOnline: ‘The hijab should be banned from primary schools but local authorities are afraid of causing offence to the Muslim community and afraid of being branded as racist.
‘The hijab only applies to women. How can a four or five year old child make an informed choice? It’s not allowed in Islam so why is it being allowed in schools?’
‘But the local authorities are too scared to go back and our government has allowed it to be part of the school policy and that’s wrong. They are trying to wash their hands of all responsibility.’
Gina Khan, a children’s rights campaigner in Birmingham, added: ‘Schools are allowing it because they are afraid of being called Islamophobic and they have been told that this is a religious garment – but they need to support Muslim girls to have free choices, not to be set apart from other children.’
Amina Lone, a Muslim former Labour parliamentary candidate, said: ‘In an Islamic context, the hijab is commonly understood as being for females after they reach the age of puberty. There are very few Muslims who would say a child should be covered.’
Shaista Gohir, of the Muslim Women’s Network, has previously said making young children wear the headscarf was as bad as children having spray tans and pole dancing lessons.
Ms Gohir said the hijab was designed to discourage sexual advances from men and enforcing it on young children could ‘sexualise’ them.
‘We challenge parents who spray tan or give pole dancing classes to seven-year-olds, so we should be challenging Muslim parents who make young children wear the hijab,’ she said.
Ofsted, the schools watchdog, has said it is investigating whether there is evidence schools are facing external pressure to adapt their policies.
Transport for London last month axed images of a four-year-old Muslim girl used in its £2million campaign for schools and nurseries (pictured)
Last month Transport for London axed images of a four-year-old Muslim girl used in its £2million campaign for schools and nurseries after religious groups said they were ‘sexualising four-year-olds’.
More than 65,000 ‘Little Londoners’ joined TfL’s young Traffic Club but its key cartoon character Razmi caused controversy because she always wears a headscarf.
Campaigner Aisha Ali-Khan said: ‘If you are a Muslim girl and look at these images and see this girl is Muslim and she is wearing a hijab and you aren’t, you will think there’s something wrong with you. It is far too young. You are a child. What are you being modest for?’