TWO female teachers from the Islamic College of South Australia have gone to court to fight against being unfairly dismissed based, in part, on their attire being considered inappropriate.

The teachers were sacked last year by the West Croydon school, which issued a warning to all female teachers - Muslim and non-Muslim - to wear a hijab head scarf or face the sack.

One of the teachers has taken a case of unfair dismissal to the civil court while the other's claim is being heard by Fair Work Australia.

School principal Kadir Emniyet yesterday defended the school's policy, which he said he had discussed with all 42 teachers. He said "90 per cent of them are happy to adhere to the policy".

The policy insists non-Muslim women to wear a head scarf, not a traditional hijab, and was installed in 1998 but dropped in 2010 by the former principal and board. It was reinstated at the start of this year with a verbal only order to staff.

Mr Emniyet, who started in his position at the college this year, said male teachers who breached the staff dress code - for example, by wearing shorts - would face the same three-strikes warning system as female teachers who did not adhere to the headscarf policy.

School board chairman Farouk Khan could not be contacted yesterday but the Independent Education Union and the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils said they were not aware of any change to the policy.

AFIC assistant secretary Keysar Trad said he had spoken with Mr Khan.

"We didn't get in to the discussion about the hijab ... it was more of a discussion about the disagreement with us on the policy," Mr Trad said. "We have our executive meeting on Saturday and I'm sure the matter will be raised there."

Mr Trad said AFIC could not force the school's governing body to change its policy, despite it being at odds with the federation's policy.

"Understand that this is not an across the board issue ... this is an issue that has arisen due to the policy of one school," he said.

"I personally don't believe in imposing the scarf on people.

"We have Muslim and non-Muslim staff in our schools who do not wear it.

"The only requirement we have is for teachers to dress modestly."

Mr Trad did not rule out AFIC imposing sanctions on the Islamic College of SA but said there should be more clarity on the issue after Saturday's meeting.