What’s wrong with the picture above, used in a safety campaign run by Transport for London?

No idea? Well, it shows Razmi, a Muslim girl aged about three or four wearing a headscarf – and this, according to some, serves to “sexualise” her because Muslim females only don the hijab when they reach puberty. It also suggests that all Muslim women are expected to wear hijabs.

“Ooops, we’re so sorry,” said TfL, and, according to this report, have ditched the £2-million children’s road safety campaign featuring Razmi.

TfL, which is chaired by Sadiq Khan, the capital’s Labour Mayor, apologised last night and said that it would stop using the images. A TfL spokeswoman said:

We apologise for any offence caused by this content and we will not use these designs in future.

The books that form the basis of the campaign were introduced under his Conservative predecessor Boris Johnson, now the foreign secretary, in 2015 and are illustrated with characters from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

Gina Khan, an advocate of Islamic women’s equality, said:

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?



Shaista Gohir, chairwoman of the Muslim Women’s Network UK charity, above, said:

It’s like trying to get that child to try to grow up far too quickly. A child needs to be treated like a child.

She criticised the tendency of the media to stereotype by always portraying Muslim women as wearing headscarves when many choose not to. Such a depiction in an educational book sent a message to boys that girls are supposed to cover their hair, she suggested.

Aisha Ali-Khan, a Muslim feminist campaigner, said the publishers of the book need diversity training.

The hijab is a Saudi-isation of British Muslim identity. If you are a Muslim girl and look at these images and see this girl is Muslim and she is wearing a hijab and you aren’t, you will think there’s something wrong with you. It is far too young. You are a child. What are you being modest for?

The London road safety books take pains to emphasise diversity. An Irish-origin child is taken, wearing a shamrock-emblazoned hat, to celebrate St Patrick’s Day in Trafalgar Square with “hundreds of happy people all dressed in green”. A middle-class white boy is taken by his father to watch the tennis at Wimbledon while a black man takes his niece to play football in the park.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn