A schoolgirl who was refused permission to wear a full-length Islamic gown in class was not deprived of the right to manifest her religion, five law lords ruled in London yesterday.

The House of Lords allowed an appeal by Denbigh High School, in Luton, against a unanimous ruling by the Court of Appeal last March in favor of Shabina Begum, 17.

Lord Bingham said it would be “irresponsible” for any court to overrule the school’s judgment “on a matter as sensitive as this.”

The power to devise a school uniform had been given to the school staff and governors for the “compelling reason” that they were best placed to exercise it, the senior law lord said, and he saw no reason to disturb their decision.

School rules permitted the shalwar kameez, loose trousers under a smocklike dress worn by some Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh girls.

But Shabina was sent home when, aged 13, she arrived wearing a jilbab, a long coat-like garment that “concealed, to a greater extent than the shalwar kameez, the contours of the female body.”

The school “had taken immense pains to devise a uniform policy that respected Muslim beliefs but did so in an inclusive, unthreatening and uncompetitive way,” Lord Bingham continued. “The rules laid down were as far from being mindless as uniform rules could ever be. The school had enjoyed a period of harmony and success to which the uniform policy was thought to contribute.”

The wife of Prime Minister Blair, Cherie Booth, QC, for Shabina, had argued that the school’s actions had deprived the girl of the right to manifest her religion under Article Nine of the Human Rights Convention.

But, Lord Hoffmann said yesterday: “Article Nine does not require that one should be allowed to manifest one’s religion at any time and place of one’s own choosing. Common civility also has a place in the religious life.”

Shabina could have changed schools when she discovered that the uniform she had worn for the past two years created a problem for her.

“That might not have been entirely convenient for her, particularly when her sister was remaining at Denbigh High, but people sometimes have to suffer some inconvenience for their beliefs,” Lord Hoffmann said.

“Instead, she and her brother decided that it was the school’s problem. They sought a confrontation and claimed that she had a right to attend the school of her own choosing in the clothes she chose to wear.”

Lady Hale pointed out that the school had respected cultural and religious diversity by allowing girls to wear a skirt, trousers, or the shalwar kameez, with or without a headscarf.

This was a “thoughtful and proportionate response”, as demonstrated by the fact that girls were worried that they would come under pressure to wear the jilbab if it had been permitted.