•Let’s keep World Hijab day alive

The use of hijab by Muslim school girls have become a fling for oppression and segregation by some die hard religious bigots. Last week,  we saw again how Muslim students in Iba Senior Secondary School, Iba, Lagos were denied the use of hijab during registration and data capturing process for West African Examinations Council, WAEC but for the quick intervention of Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, the haters of Muslims and religious extremists would denied the young Muslim students the opportunity to register for the important examination merely because they chose to express themselves as Muslims.

When MURIC’s team led by  Prof Ishaq Akintola got to the scene, Muslims students were refused registration process unless they pull off their hijab, while their Christians counterparts were being registered. After heated argument between the officials and MURIC, the WAEC official in charge, allegedly called WAEC office and after the phone call stated that WAEC had allowed Muslim students to use hijab but they should not cover their faces.

hijab protesters

Of course, the overzealous officials knew that no student was in purdah, and no student was covering her face, the Muslim student were only wearing their hijab; the officials were only expressing their hatred for Islam and advancing the interest of their cohorts who are fanning the embers of religious crisis.

https://newlive.vanguardngr.com/2019/01/well-be-fair-to-all-sanwo-olu-tells-muslims/

But we give glory to God for the intervention of MURIC.  These students would have been denied their rights.  These students would have been forced to remove their hijab, wound their sensibilities and perhaps went away with the impression of an insane society.

Cases of Hijab abuse

Recall that the Principal of Kadara Junior Grammar School, Ebute Meta, Lagos flogged one of her students, Aishat Alabi, then a 16-year-old student for daring to wear hijab after the official closing hour. She was said to have been flogged 43 times as disclosed by one of the students. The incident however became a catalyst for the beginning of the struggle for rights of female Muslims to the use of hijab. Alhamdullilah, the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria, Lagos Area Unit, has done very well in standing for the rights of their members and that has recorded monumental achievements securing Appeal Court judgment in their favour.  The Lagos State Government immediately approached the Supreme Court after failing to secure a Stay of Execution, but no judgment has been delivered yet. Right now, the subsisting judgement remains valid since there is no other contrary judgement. This is what these anti-Islamic extremists must know.

Shortly after that incident, two female nurses, Mrs Fasilat Olayinka Lawal and Miss Sekinat Sanusi, of National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi Lagos (NOHIL) were sacked for wearing hijab while on duty.

Apart from the provisions of the constitution and the universal rights declaration on the freedom of religion, the duo relied on the prescription of their regulatory body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria which says nurses should either wear nurse cap or shoulder length hijab. But some overzealous bosses with chronic islamophobia sacked the nurses. After several months of protest and struggle my some Muslim groups and individuals, they were reinstated.

The victory of Barrister Firdaos Amosa who was called to the Nigerian bar in July last year, after a resolved misunderstanding caused by the infringement on her right to use hijab in December 2017, is another victory for  Islam.

As the wave of victory spreads, the anti-Islam elements decide not to relent and the stop them in Hijab act started again in Lagos State. Five students of Isolo Senior Secondary School, Lagos were suspended by the Principal, Mrs. J.O. Sadare for wearing hijab, telling them to choose between their religion and education.  While they were locked out of the premises, the students were seen writing notes and studying inside a tricycle in the area. What can be more trumatising for teenagers, than this just because they chose to comply with divine injunction. That commandment of Allah did not say the hijab should worn in the bedroom, but it is a outdoor specification meant for public places.

The International School Ibadan was shut down recently because some female Muslim students wore n Hijab in line with their constitutional right. The case is still in court.

About 50 female Muslim students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology International School (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso also recently were harrased and traumatised for wearing hijab on their school uniform. They were locked out of the school premises. Just like the University of Ibadan International Secondary School, the situation is yet to be resolved.

School girls do not have to choose between public education and adhering to their faith.

It is a religious duty, a commandment by God on how they should look in public places.  For Muslims, wearing a hijab is not a mere religious wish or expression, it is strictly a divine commandment; an obligation to all Muslim women.

If the constitution freely provides for freedom to exercise one’s faith according to section 38 (1) of the 1999 constitution, then where lies the tolerance so claimed by non-Muslims?

The continuous harassment of the Muslim girl child over hijab in schools by these fanatics is alarming and constitute a serious threat to public peace. The hijab issue is not new particularly in Lagos where several instances of abuse have been recorded and on which subsisting Court of Appeal judgment can be legally placed.  The Court of Appeal, presided by Justice A.B. Gumel, on July 21, 2016, overruled the October 17, 2014 judgment of of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja, which banned the use of hijab in public primary and secondary schools in Lagos State. While striking down Justice’s Onyeabo’s verdict, the Justice Gumel panel held that the ban on hijab was discriminatory against Muslim pupils in the state.

As a demonstration of modesty and obedience to Allah, Muslim girls and women wear hijab in line with the injunction of the Quran. Q24:30–31. For Muslims, wearing hijab is not a fashion expression, but a strictly religious obligation to be adhered to particularly when in public places.  And if the constitution freely provides for freedom to exercise one’s faith according to section 38 (1) of the 1999 constitution, then why  the crunch about wearing hijab an expression of a faith which is also a constitutional rights, why should Muslim girls suffer these harassment?  Is it a ploy to pull down Islam at all cost? Is this the new gospel the non-Muslims are preaching; or is it the way they have chosen to express their explicit hate for Islam?  Where lies the tolerance so claimed by non-Muslims? Unless these questions are solved, the issue will remain a gunpowder keg buying time to explode.

Truth remains that the more they harass and stop Muslim girls from wearing hijab, the more awareness  they create for the use of hijab by Muslim girls. They will never relent in adorning their hijab, they will rock in it to any public place and will prefer to obey Allah than that bigot who ask them to choose between their education and religion.  But the Muslim groups and organisations must be ready to confront the challenge. The struggle to finally liberate ourselves from these obsessive fanatics who despite the court judgment allowing the use of hijab still harass, intimidate and oppress young Muslims is now.  Certainly, all hands must be on deck to halt these incessant taunts and abuse.

World Hijab Day

Next Friday is another World Hijab Day.  The event is held in recognition of millions of Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab and live a life of modesty. A New York resident, Nazma Khan, who came up with the idea as a means of fostering religious tolerance and understanding by inviting women (non-Hijabi Muslims/non-Muslims) to experience the hijab for one day also has her own story.

Muslims in this part of the world can as well make a mince meat out of the opportunity the day serves. The struggle must not only continue, it must be seen, heard and loudly too.