Headlines, Human Rights, North America

RIGHTS-U.S.: School Relents on Muslim Headscarf

Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 2003 (IPS) - Eleven-year-old Nashala Hearn thought she would never be able to return to her school. But on Wednesday, she was in class with her friends – the third time she has rejoined them since school started this year. And she was very happy.

”I had a great day,” she said in a phone interview just as she emerged from school. ”All of my friends were, like, they all welcomed me back. They were excited and stuff.”

The sixth grade student has been suspended twice since Oct. 1, after school officials in the town of Muskogee in the state of Oklahoma said her Islamic headscarf violated their dress code policy.

The decision by the Ben Franklin Science Academy, a public school, sparked media interest across the United States and complaints from many civil rights groups that the decision threatened the girl’s right to practice her religion. Some people suggested the decision was racially motivated.

Hundreds of concerned civil right activists contacted local and state education officials about the issue.

”It was pretty down in our household,” said the girl’s father, Eyvine Hearn. ”We all felt for our daughter. I cannot describe our feelings because there were so many mixed emotions. We tried to stay as strong as possible. It was hard to keep her amused … It was pretty bad there,” he told IPS.

The father said his family was particularly offended when school officials kept referring to the headscarf (or hijab), worn by Muslim women to show modesty, as ”headgear” or a ”bandana”. Nashala’s scarf covers her hair and neck, her father said.

He adds that family members were rattled to learn of the school’s stance on the anniversary of the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Many Muslims, Arabs and Arab American say they were subjected to different forms of discrimination, racial profiling and violations of their rights in the aftermath of the attacks, attributed to the al-Qaeda terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden.

In September, the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of religion said that the United States needs to confront the spread of “Islamophobia and Arabophobia” in the country.

Abdelfattah Amor blamed statements from some public figures and right-wing writers for prompting violence against Arabs and Muslims after 9/11.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says it received hundreds of reports of physical assaults against American Muslims (or those perceived to be Muslim) and Islamic institutions since Sep. 11, 2001.

Hate and racial crimes against Arabs and Muslims skyrocketed by 1,700 percent in 2001, according to statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Many Muslim women had to fight to wear the headscarf at schools, places of work and sometimes even in public. For example, in August, a Muslim woman in Maryland State had to battle the administration of a beauty school before she was finally allowed to wear the hijab.

”We have a civil rights report that we publish every year and hijab cases are the number one type of cases that are filed to us from Muslim women,” said Rabiah Ahmed of CAIR.

But Ahmed said the rise in other discrimination cases has reduced the percentage of hijab complaints among the problems facing Muslim women.

Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States. Muslim groups say there are 6.8 million Muslims in the country and that by 2010, the U.S. Muslim population will surpass the Jewish population, making Islam the second-largest faith after Christianity.

The school’s decision about Hearn came a few days after a U.S. convert wearing a hijab was stabbed in the back outside a K-Mart store in Virginia state by a white male teenager who shouted “you terrorist pig” before running away.

The girl has worn the hijab since Aug. 18, the first day of school. On Sep. 11, she was called to the principal’s office and told to call her parents about the hijab, her father said.

”Because of the date that she first knew she had a problem, 9/11, as opposed to Aug. 18 when she actually started school, I think (the decision) had a lot to do with it (Sep. 11) … 9/11 is when she started having problems,” he added.

Nashala was suspended for three days Oct. 1, and again Oct. 5 for five days.

CAIR and civil liberties groups then asked the Oklahoma State Education Department to step in and convince the school to let the girl return to classes.

Her father threatened legal action.

”What’s unique about this case is that they (school administrators) were not willing to settle this,” said Ahmed of CAIR. ”Initially they were not budging at all. They would have been the first public school not to allow a girl to come in with her religious headscarf.”

But on Wednesday, a school district legal representative said Hearn would be able to attend classes as early as Wednesday, pending a review of the school policy.

”The main thing is that she is back to school,” her father said. ”She is very happy. We are all happy for her.”

Activist groups said the decision was a double win that allows the girl to continue her education, and upholds her right to practice her faith.

Nashala said the episode did not change her opinion about wearing the hijab. “I will keep it on,” she said.

“We are also confident that school district administrators will ultimately decide in favour of changing the dress code policy to accommodate all students’ religious practices, as mandated by the constitution and Oklahoma law,” said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.