Transport for London (TfL) has pulled a road safety campaign featuring a young Muslim girl wearing a hijab following accusations it was "sexualising" a child.

The £2m Children's Traffic Club campaign shows a three or four-year-old girl called Razmi wearing a religious headscarf as she plays with her Chinese best friend Maylin.

But the decision to show the young Muslim character wearing a hijab has led to criticism, because the headscarf is traditionally worn by women over the age of puberty.

Shaista Gohir, chair of Muslim Women's Network UK, told Sky News: "It is frustrating to see that every time a Muslim girl or woman needs to be represented, she has to be shown covering her head.

"Why reinforce stereotypes, especially when it comes to children? Most Muslim four-year-old girls do not wear the hijab - those who want to wear it usually do so at puberty with some only adopting it due to parental and peer pressure.


"Images such as those in the book send out the wrong message to both young Muslim girls and boys that Muslim girls should be covered from a very young age and that they are responsible for warding off unwanted male sexual attention.

"We need to let children be children and reflect this in our messaging."

Image: The Children’s Traffic Club London has 66,000 members

Gina Khan, an advocate of Islamic women's equality, told The Times: "You are sexualising a four-year-old girl. It is as simple as that.

"The reason a female is covered is so men don't look at her. How can you integrate in society if you have a four-year-old girl wearing a hijab?"

The character appeared on the TfL website and in a children's picture book distributed to nurseries.

A TfL spokesperson said: "We apologise for any offence caused by this content and we will not use these designs in future. The Children's Traffic Club was developed to help reduce casualties on London's roads by educating pre-school children on basic road safety skills."

The books were introduced in 2015 by former mayor and current Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

A spokesperson for the current Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said the books were first published under Mr Johnson and had not been approved by Mr Khan.

The Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years, which helped TfL to develop the Traffic Club safety guide for nursery leaders, told Sky News: "We feel that the characterisations balance the need to represent the ethnic diversity of the London population with an approach that supports children under five.

"We have happily promoted the CTC London resource to our 30,000 members since its launch in September 2015 with no such concerns being raised."

The Children's Traffic Club London has 66,000 members and aims to reduce casualties on London's roads by teaching children essential road safety before they go to school.