Muslim Group Seeks Medical, Religious Rights

Muslim Group Seeks Medical, Religious Rights for Virginia Detainee

WASHINGTON, March 25 –

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on state and federal authorities to investigate whether a Muslim woman facing deportation in Virginia is being denied proper medical treatment and the right to wear religiously-mandated attire.According to the Muslim detainee’s family, she has been denied the right to wear an Islamic headscarf (hijab) and is not receiving adequate medical care for renal, liver and mental health problems that require immediate treatment. She is being held at Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth, Va., pending deportation to Ethiopia.

“All those held in American prisons or detention facilities deserve proper medical care and the freedom to practice their faith,” said CAIR Legal Counsel Nadhira Al-Khalili.

She noted that the Virginia Department of Corrections Division Operating Procedure (856), attachment 3A, states that an inmate is allowed a “religious hat or head covering” if its maximum length is to the shoulder and does not cover the face. Department policies also require that inmates be given proper health care while in custody.

In a letter to Gene M. Johnson, director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, Al-Khalili asked that the Muslim detainee be allowed to wear her religious headscarf and be provided with proper medical care. She also requested that the detainee not face retaliation and that the staff of Hampton Roads Regional Jail be offered diversity training.

CAIR, America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com; CAIR Strategic Communications Director Ahmed Rehab, 202-870-0166, E-Mail: arehab@cair.com

SOURCE Council on American-Islamic Relations

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Fencers’ scarves make a point

Muslim girl’s teammates at Canadian school don head covering to show unity, support during final competition

Everyone asks Mozynah “Moza” Nofal questions. Why does she wear a scarf on her head? Why does she always dress in long sleeves? What’s it like to be Muslim?

Nofal graduated from Cobleskill High School and is attending Carleton University in Ontario, Canada, where she is a member of the fencing team.

Her teammates asked how it felt to fence with her scarf under her face mask. They also wanted her to know they love and support her. So in the final competition of the year, when other teams dyed their hair the same color to show unity, her teammates donned head scarves, called hejab or hijab.

“We’ve always noticed that she’s the only fencer in Ontario that wears a hijab; it must feel lonely or different,” said Rachael Gardner, a sophomore on the fencing team. “We all really respect the confidence she has in her religion.”

Nofal, 16 and a freshman, couldn’t stop laughing at first.

“I didn’t imagine they would do something like that,” she said. “For me, it’s a really big thing when someone puts on a hijab because it’s such a religious act, but for them it was part of being a team. … I thought it was really sweet.”

Nofal’s mother, Hadeer Abo El Nagah, who is Egyptian, is a former visiting professor at SUNY Cobleskill who teaches at Carleton University.

The Muslim religion instructs that women should only display their beauty to their husbands and family members.

“Exposing parts of your body makes guys think of you in a sexual way,” Nofal said. “To prevent that, you don’t dress in a sexual way. It’s not all about the hijab. That’s an extra step. The whole idea is to dress properly.”

Nofal doesn’t see wearing the hijab as a sacrifice.

“I don’t date. I don’t do things most girls here would do,” she said. “I don’t think of that stuff as more valuable than believing in my religion.”

As for fencing with the scarf under her mask, she said she’s been doing it since she began fencing and doesn’t even notice.

“It’s sweaty and uncomfortable,” Gardner said. “It makes me respect her even more.”

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Hijab Battles Around the World

Tayyibah, St. Paul Minnesota. Fatima, Creil, France. Samira, Algiers, Algeria. What do these women have in common? They are all Muslim, and they’ve all had a run-in with the law.

Their crimes, you ask? Wearing Hijab, or the Islamic head scarf. Worldwide there seems to be a growing consensus that a few yards of cloth on a woman’s head, especially if it covers part or all of her face, is a threat to education, women’s rights, public security and even to freedom of religion itself.

MUSLIM COUNTRIES NOT IMMUNE TO THE TREND
Amazingly, countries whose populations are predominantly Muslim are not immune to this trend. Indeed, it seems they have led the charge.
For many years, Turkey, followed more recently by Algeria and Tunisia, has had a prohibition on wearing Hijab.
Egypt, up until a few weeks ago, also forbade women students to wear scarves. Morocco forbade its citizens living in France to join protests against Hijab strictures there.
Women who defy the bans may be arrested, denied jobs and education, fined or even thrown in prison. More recently, moves against the Hijab have been made in European and American countries.
THE CASE OF HIJAB DISCRIMINATION IN FRANCE
This September in France, the national minister of education issued a directive that effectively banned head scarves from the classroom. On October 3, police were called in to prevent 22 Muslim girls from entering their school wearing the Hijab.
Since then polls have shown that 86 percent of the French populace supports the education minister’s decree.
The general perception is that Hijab is a threat to secularism and the separation of religion and state. In particular, there was concern that Hijab is responsible for dividing Muslim and non-Muslim students.
Some even claim that it is an Islamist plot to “demolish the secular public system” (Le Point Magazine).
Others worry that head scarves introduce religious influences into the public school and places undue strain on other students to conform to Islam’s dress or moral code.
HIJAB: A VIOLATION OF A WOMAN’S RIGHTS?
Another claim is that Hijab constitutes a violation of the female’s human rights because it is a form of discrimination.
Yet, it is common in France for students to wear crosses or yarmulkes (the Jewish skullcap) and for Jewish students to be exempted from Saturday classes. Defending his discriminatory decision, [French education minister Francois] Bayrou declared, “My instructions to school heads will be very clear. We will continue to accept discrete religious signs, as has always been the case. But we cannot accept ostentatious signs that divide our youth.”
BENAZIR BHUTTO ON THE HIJAB
Visiting Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto added insult to injury, when addressing the French Diplomatic Press Association on November 3.
[She]said that Muslim girls who want to wear head scarves perhaps “want to make an identity of their own and to observe what they consider to be their traditions,” and declared “luckily my father did not ask me to wear a veil, otherwise I might not be here before you today.”
HIJAB DISCRIMINATION IN AUSTRALIA
Sociology professor Gary Bouma, of Melbourne’s Monash University, who authored [the] Australian Bureau of Immigration and Population Research’s report, says wearing the Hijab “clearly sets a woman aside as different and as a serious Muslim,” adding “that wearing the Hijab made it difficult for them to get jobs.”
The report, which said that many of Australia’s 150,000 Muslims have experienced harassment and bigotry, was released by Immigration Minister Nick Bolkus on November 4, just days after his government announced new laws carrying jail sentences for inciting racial hatred.

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Guard harassed Muslim women

Muslim Ejected From Louisiana Mall Over Hijab

WASHINGTON, Feb. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on local, state and national law enforcement authorities to investigate a recent incident in which a Muslim woman was allegedly ejected from a Louisiana shopping mall for refusing a security guard’s demand to remove her religiously-mandated headscarf, or hijab.

CAIR said the 54-year-old woman and her daughter-in-law were leaving the food court of the Oakwood Mall in the New Orleans suburb of Gretna, La., on February 22 when a security guard approached them and allegedly told the older woman that she had two options: remove her headscarf or leave the mall. (The woman’s daughter-in-law was not wearing a headscarf.) The guard did not offer an explanation for his demand.

During the long walk out of the mall, the guard reportedly followed the women and even called for back-up. The daughter-in-law told CAIR that the two women felt “humiliated” by the stares of other shoppers as the guard followed them out of the mall. When two more guards came to the scene, they did not offer assistance to the women, but they did confirm the reason for the first guard’s ejection order. The family, all of whom are American citizens of Palestinian heritage, has retained an attorney and is exploring their legal options.

“It is unbelievable that an American of any faith would be denied access to a public area merely because she wished to carry out the requirements of her faith,” said CAIR National Legal Counsel Nadhira Al-Khalili. “We call on local law enforcement authorities and the FBI to determine whether any civil rights or criminal laws were violated during this disturbing incident.”

CAIR, America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

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