a recent news story that got a lot of attention here was about a Muslim teaching assistant who, when asked to remove her veil while teaching, refused. Apparently, the school administration asked her to remove the veil because the children could not understand what she was saying when she was speaking to them (she was hired as a bilingual support worker). When she refused, they fired her, and she went to court with it. At the end of last week the court dismissed her three claims of discrimination and harrassment but found she was victimised by the school and awarded her 1, 000 pounds for 'injury to feelings'. In the meantime, her story inspired some interesting debate-about Muslim culture in the context of British society. Tony Blair commented that the veil is a 'mark of separation' which makes people of other ethnic backgrounds 'uncomfortable'. The teaching assistant, Mrs. Azmi, along with others criticised Blair for making comments before her case was decided. Mrs. Azmi, at the end of her case, commented that she was 'fearful for Muslim women in this country who want to work'. She also said "Integration requires people like me to be in the workplace so that people can see that we are not feared or mistrusted". Hmm. She has a point. Obviously the veil has a lot of cultural/religious significance (of which I don' t know enough about to pretend I know anything), but what should happen when a veil-or any other religious/cultural clothing/item/tradition, etc. interferes with a person doing her or his job?