A British Muslim teacher who was suspended for refusing to remove her full face veil will appeal a ruling dismissing her claims that she suffered discrimination and harassment, her lawyer said on Friday.
Aishah Azmi, 24, has been at the centre of a political storm over her suspension as a teaching assistant from a state-run primary school in Dewsbury, northern England, for refusing to remove her niqab, which reveals only her eyes.
Azmi lost three claims of discrimination and harassment before an employment tribunal on Thursday, although she was awarded 1,000 pounds (1,500 euros, 1,900 dollars) for injured feelings.
"This is a new area of law in terms of religious belief discrimination," said her lawyer Nick Whittingham. "It's untested so we need to be taking that to a higher court."
He told BBC radio they would examine whether the case fell into an area of direct or indirect discrimination.
"What we are trying to say is that she can do her job perfectly even if she is wearing a veil," he said.
Whittingham, of the Kirklees Law Centre, said his team was putting together Azmi's appeal, and would be applying for legal aid to fund this next stage of her battle. "We're hopeful of getting legal aid for this," he said.
Azmi's picture was on the front page of several newspapers on Friday and she has been the focal point of a simmering two-week debate on the veil and Muslim integration, with Prime Minister Tony Blair calling the veil a "mark of separation".
Her local member of parliament appealed for her to "let this thing go", saying the employment tribunal had got it "absolutely spot on".
Shahid Malik, of the governing Labour Party, told BBC radio: "I just think there is very little support for this, she is very isolated and it would be healthy all round if she just let it go and just accept the tribunal result."
Main opposition Conservative leader David Cameron warned late on Thursday that Muslims felt "slightly targeted" by the veils row -- though he had "great sympathy" with the school involved.
Cameron said the debate may not be helping to resolve the differences between Muslims and the rest of the British population.
Politicians from all sides have been having their say on the issue.
"I think there is a danger of politicians piling in ... and really they have to ask themselves whether this is having an overall good effect or not," Cameron told ITV television.
A defiant Azmi said after on Thursday's ruling: "Muslim women who wear the veil are not aliens and politicians need to recognise that what they say can have a very dangerous impact on the lives of the minorities they treat as outcasts.
"Integration requires people like me to be in the workplace so that people can see that we are not to be feared or mistrusted."
The local council, which held the tribunal, had argued that face-to-face communication was essential for Azmi's job as a bilingual support worker. She was suspended from her Church of England school on full pay in February.
Robert Light, leader of Kirklees Council, appealed for calm.
"The council will study all aspects of the tribunal judgement in detail, including the elements where its handling of grievance procedural issues led to the modest financial award to Mrs Azmi by the tribunal," he said.
"For this issue to continue in a high profile national spotlight is not in the interests of the school, or the local community," he added.
"We need to let things calm down," he said.