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IN PHOTO: Muslim girls wearing headscarves listen to a class about the acceptance of different faiths in Australian culture at Risallah College Primary School in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba August 29, 2005. Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who is campaigning to gain Muslim support against Islamic extremists, was forced to reject a call by a senior government member for a ban on the wearing of headscarves by Muslim school students who said they are "becoming the icon, the symbol of the clash of cultures, and it runs much deeper than a piece of cloth". REUTERS/David Gray

An Australian school did not allow girls to run at a sporting event. The principal feared that they might lose their virginity by doing so, according to former teachers.

The Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority is now investigating the allegations against Al-Taqwa College. The case has also been referred to federal and state education ministers. Omar Hallak, the principal of the Islamic school in Victoria, allegedly believes that girls may lose their virginity with excessive running.

A former teacher sent a letter to the education ministers to report the alleged discrimination against female students at the school. The teacher alleged that the principal believed there was scientific evidence that girls could become infertile if they injured themselves while playing. The principal did not permit girl students at the school to take part in a cross country race in a 2013 and 2014 district event.

The teacher further alleged that Hallak stopped the girls from participating at the last moment without having been aware that they had been training hard to compete at the race. The female students at the school practised in another Islamic school where girls were encouraged to participate in sporting events.

The former teacher said that she had looked back on his time at Al-Taqwa with frustration and anger. She added that she had done his best to stay committed to the students but was unable to provide the same opportunities to students that she had been given when she was at primary school more than 20 years ago.

Hallak is the same person who told his students earlier that Islamic State was a Western conspiracy. When he banned girls from taking part in the competition, they wrote a handwritten letter to him and said that it was unfair.

The girls asked the principal to be fair to all the students no matter if they were boys or girls. “Just because we are girls, [it] doesn’t mean we can’t participate in running events,” the letter says. It also refers to rulings in the Quran and says that the “hadith” does not stop girls from running.

Interestingly, the official website highlights the victory of a team of male students in a recent competition. The school takes pride in announcing that a team of Year 7 boys won the Wyndham Inter-School Tennis Tournament without dropping a set.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au

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