Road accidents are the biggest cause of death among young people – so when any child road safety project is thrown off course, it’s hugely frustrating. The Children’s Traffic Club campaign, sponsored and funded by Transport for London, is excellent but for the cultural and religious depictions used in its story books. And, I might add, it is entirely reasonable to expect a £2m campaign to get it right. Especially one conceived in our diverse capital city.

The portrayal of a pre-school female child wearing a hijab was most obviously offensive, because it is commonly accepted that Muslim women – if they choose to wear a hijab – do so in adolescence or after puberty because of the link to the growing sexuality of a woman’s body. But all the characters were lazy stereotypes. Political correctness gone awol, you might say.

The images were only dropped after a Muslim mother’s complaint, and an investigation by a Times journalist brought them to the attention of the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

There is a dangerous element to this that activists like Gina Khan and other women’s rights and equality campaigners are right to highlight. A minority of very vocal hardliners within Muslim communities are pushing a narrow version of what constitutes an “acceptable” Muslim woman. One who is veiled, compliant and modest in all her actions. The old Victorian mantra of being seen and not heard reinvented for the 21st century. They seek to encourage increasingly young girls to cover themselves, and produce images of female children wearing hijabs. This is not a tradition mandated by any religious scripture. But I was shocked to see it reinforced at a conference hosted by Google and Imams Online earlier this year. Every single image, even the cartoon ones, were of children covered up. Most Muslims accept that covering up is not required of prepubescent children: for they are children, pure and simple.

Sadly, gender has become a crucial battleground in the Islamic world. Women of all ages are now seen as fair targets as accusations fly over who is practising “real Islam” and who is just a “Friday Muslim”. The purity test is applied to younger and younger children. If the patriarchy can normalise the idea that even children are holders of honour and chastity, then they have won.

It would be laughable if it was not so insidious. The version of Islam that Isis and its supporters advocate makes similar demands. Women, children and minorities are swallowed up in an austere landscape devoid of light, plurality and complexity. This is relevant to us here in the UK because we live in an interconnected world. Equalities were fought for by women and men in this country and cost blood, sweat and tears. As we watch our US cousins fight the dilution of women’s rights, we bear witness to the fragility of progress.

Cancellation of the TfL book campaign was an important decision in this continuing fight. We owe it to our daughters and sons to not let down our guard.

• Amina Lone is co-director of Social Action & Research Foundation