SINGAPORE — A 6-year-old girl at the center of a dispute over Islamic headscarves in Singapore was sent by her parents to Australia to attend a private religious school, her father said Tuesday.
"I can't bear to see her without education any longer," the girl's father, Mohamad Nasser, told The Associated Press from Melbourne.
Nurul Nasiha Nasser was expelled from her Singapore primary school six months ago, after failing to comply with a national ban on the "tudung," or Islamic headscarf, in schools.
Last Thursday, she began classes at the King Khalid Islamic College in Melbourne, Nasser said, where girls are allowed to wear the scarf.
The girl moved to Australia with her mother, Juliana Mohammed, and two other siblings, Nasser said, adding that he will live in Singapore with his 10-year-old son for the time being but has applied for permanent residency in Australia. Nasser's daughter was one of four girls expelled or taken out of school earlier this year for wearing Islamic headscarves.
Many Muslim women wear headscarves in Singapore, but the government of the tightly controlled Southeast Asian city-state refuses to allow the scarves in schools.
Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong has repeatedly defended the ban, saying that Singapore can ill afford racial division especially in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the arrest here in December of 15 alleged Islamic extremists involved in a plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy and other western interests.
Despite pleas and threats of a law suit from a handful of Muslim parents, Singapore government officials have stood firm on the ban.
About 14 percent of Singapore's 4 million people are Muslims.