NADIA EWEIDA, the self-styled “cross lady” who has forced British Airways to climb down in the row over wearing her cross to work, has refused to sacrifice her religious beliefs and accept the olive branch.

BA, which has endured weeks of criticism from around the world and the threat of a passenger boycott, has announced that it is to review its uniform policy to allow symbols of faith to be worn openly. It is suggesting they are worn as lapel badges rather than on chains.

Eweida, 55, a thorn in BA’s side as an activist for Christian rights even before the current row erupted, said this weekend that she would not compromise. She insists on being allowed to wear the cross on a chain around her neck and in full public view at her check-in desk at London’s Heathrow airport. Nor would she accept a BA offer to work behind the scenes where she could wear it openly.

So far her stance has attracted the support of 100 MPs and 14 bishops. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was critical of the original policy, yesterday welcomed the review. “This is a victory for common sense,” he said. The Church Commissioners, who have a £9m investment in BA, are due to meet the airline this week.

The cross is no bigger than a 5p piece and BA has been further embarrassed by the revelation that it offers similar jewellery from its inflight sales trolleys.

This week Eweida will attend a second and final appeal against her employers’ decision to suspend her without pay. Even if the airline decides that it was wrong to suspend her, it will find it difficult to allow her to return to work.

She said this weekend: “There is no way I will agree to wear the cross out of sight until the review is completed. There will be no compromise. The world has seen my cross and the size of it. I am expecting to wear my cross on my chain and around my neck. I would not be prepared to wear a cross as a lapel badge, not in my frame of mind.”

Speaking from her home in Twickenham, southwest London, where she lives with her mother, Eweida added: “How can British Airways be sitting judge and jury over spiritual truths? You see men wearing badges on lapels, not females. I follow the common practice of Christian culture by wearing the cross on a chain. I will not change the custom of Christianity to suit British Airways. It has certainly not changed the customs of other faiths.”

BA’s Sikh employees wear turbans and female Muslim staff cover their hair with the hijab.

Egyptian-born Eweida, who also works as an interpreter for the Home Office, has broken another BA rule by speaking to the media. This could lead to further disciplinary action by BA. She was given a warning about a previous incident when she appeared on American television.

A BA spokesman said: “We are trying to find a way in which the cross can be shown openly in compliance with employment legislation.”

Eweida admitted in one interview with The Sunday Times that she was a kind of “trade unionist for God”.

For many years she did comply with the airline’s rules. She joined BA in 1999 and has always worn a cross, but she admitted that it had not always been visible: “With the old BA uniform you had to wear a shirt and it was buttoned at the collar, so you wouldn’t see the cross. But then they changed the uniform.”

She said the controversy began in May 2006 after she attended a BA course entitled Diversity and Dignity at Work. “The aim was to help staff to understand different cultures and their religious practices,” said Eweida. “Afterwards I raised the question ‘Why didn’t you mention Christianity?’ and the lady in charge said she couldn’t help me.”

In October she was approached by a BA duty manager and told to remove the cross. When she said she wanted to challenge the policy, she was sent home.

It is not the first time she has tangled with the airline. In the late 1990s BA used to run an audio programme broadcasting the Koran on flights to the Middle East. Eweida was part of a campaign to get it to broadcast Bible readings as well. She also campaigned to allow Christians at BA not to have to work on Christmas Day.

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