Britain's highest court yesterday upheld a high school's order for a Muslim pupil to change out of her Islamic gown into school uniform, in a test case for school dress codes. In overturning a landmark Court of Appeal ruling last year, the Law Lords judges argued that the school in Luton, north of London, had devised a uniform that respected all faiths, including that of the plaintiff, Shabina Begum.

In the judgement, Lord Thomas Bingham said Denbigh High School - where 75 per cent of the students were Muslim and Muslims sat on school bodies - had drafted rules that were ‘acceptable’ to mainstream Muslim opinion.

"Obviously I am saddened and disappointed about this, but I am quite glad it is all over and I can move on now," Begum told reporters following the ruling.

"Even though I lost, I have made a stand. Many women out there will not speak up about what they actually want." She said she would be discussing with her lawyers whether they would apply to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Like the vast majority of English high schools, the school required its pupils to wear blazers as well as trousers for boys and skirts for girls, but also permitted the salwar kameez (trousers and tunic) and headscarf.

Muslim groups were dismayed by the ruling.

"On a matter of principle we are disappointed," said Tahir Alam, education spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, the country's largest Muslim lobby group. "There are lots of schools across the country which allow the jilbab and this issue should have been resolved at a local level. It's unfortunate that it's gone through the courts."

Begum's case was championed by Cherie Booth, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and a prominent human rights lawyer. At the start of the academic year in September 2002, she started wearing the jilbab but was sent home to change. She did not return to the school and later enrolled at another school where the jilbab was permitted.

Begum, now 17, took the school's headteacher and governors to court for denying her the "right to education and to manifest her religious beliefs" under the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights.

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