ZIMBABWE’S Supreme Court on Wednesday passed a landmark ruling barring school authorities from expelling deadlocked students from learning institutions on grounds of their hairstyles.

Seven-year-old Glen Norah boy, Farai Benjamin Dzvova, 7, who comes from a Rastafarian family, was barred from Ruvheneko government primary school on account of his hairstyle last year, forcing his father to launch a constitutional appeal on his behalf.

In court papers the boy’s family said his religious freedom was being infringed, while the education authorities said a short hair rule has nothing to do with religion but was simply a school standard applicable to all pupils.

Last year the High Court granted the boy a temporary order to attend school pending the outcome of the Supteme Court case.

Human rights lawyer Tafadzwa Mugabe on Wednesday confirmed that the boy had won his case in the country’s highest court.

“I can confirm that the Supreme Court today granted the final order,” he said.

The lawyer said the effect of the judgment was to bar the Minister of Education Aeneas Chigwedere and the Ruveneko school headmaster from discriminating against the boy or bar him from school on grounds of his dreadlocks.
Read full article on New Zimbabwe

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