#Hijabisanidentity: The fight continues

Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right in the Ghanaian legal system. To be specific Article 21 (c) of the 1992 Constitution states: “All persons shall have the right to freedom to practice any religion and to manifest such practice.”

Unfortunately, most Muslim women and girls living in Ghana have dealt with individuals who exert their biases and bigotry into institutional cultures. Thus, making it impossible for Muslim women to wear the hijab as part of their religious freedoms stipulated in the 1992 constitution.

My journey towards building the #hijabisanidentity movement

Lately, I have been involved in various forms of activism including the #DropThatChamber campaign that forced Parliament to reverse its decision on building a new Chamber. Considering Ghana’s economy and the dire need for better amenities for its people, this was a ridiculous idea. Our relentless mobilizing work not only kept Ghana’s parliament accountable but yielded the results that we had hoped to achieve.

On the issue of hijab, the ordeal of Fola Shade triggered the campaign – a journey that will require not only physical investment but emotional support to each other to press on despite the hurdles.

What was her story? Like many Ghanaian Muslim women who have at least had their fair share of discrimination, Fola Shade’s story is a powerful one. Fola Shade, a student, was prevented from writing her mathematics paper during this year’s NOV-DEC exams because she refused to take her hijab off.

Initially, I hesitated and didn’t want to get directly involved because I knew how emotionally I tend to get with issues of injustice. Until, my big sister, Bashiratu Kamal-Muslim tagged me in a post and told me we needed to do something.

There was another incident that sparked the movement. A Muslim nursing student went to get information about a posting from the Midwifery Council together with other Muslim hijabis. They were all denied entry because they were wearing hijabs. These women were asked by certain actors in the establishment to take off their veils. While the other Muslim women acquiesced and took off their hijabs out of fear, this woman stood her ground and was refused posting. These are the events that led to the birth of the movement.

Let’s think this through for a second – “A young Muslim woman who has worked hard to make it to nursing school, passed all her examinations and then was actually denied a posting because of her hijab but not her qualifications or knowledge?”

In the case of our nursing student, something had to be done. So, I spoke to Zainab Issah and she did her best and we involved the Zongo Minister, Mustapha Hameed to work towards getting justice for her. After the involvement of the minister, she was allowed to have her clinicals in Accra.

These two incidents began our journey. Having previously personally dealt with the issues around the oppression of hijabis and islamophobia in Ghana, I was already emotionally invested in the cause. I was also concerned about how this discrimination and marginalization would affect my young daughters in the future. Sister Bash and I, therefore, decided to join forces with other well-meaning Muslim sisters to find a sustainable solution to the problem.

Support started pouring in as soon as we spoke to some of these wonderful young women.

And this is how the #Hijabisanidentity campaign was born.

We had our first town hall meeting at the Kathy Knowles Library on September 14, 2019, to draft a plan on how we wanted to kick start this campaign. After the town hall meeting, we continued with active online advocacy on our rights as citizens of Ghana and the world both on Facebook and Twitter. We were invited by media houses to talk about the campaign. Bashiratu Kamal-Muslim, Hajia Zalia Qassim and Mariam Kaleem took charge of the media engagements and were always on point with their interviews. Next, we began sending out letters and meeting with various stakeholders to involve them in the movement. Although we were all from diverse backgrounds, we shared a common goal and a common passion.

In all of our media engagements, our team constantly presented their arguments using the Ghana Constitution, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and other conventions that Ghana has been a part of.

One of our main arguments was that the more Muslim women were discriminated against because of the hijab, the more we lost women in the labor market which wasn’t good enough for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Muslim Women leaving their work because they have to choose between a career and their religion is not the way to go. Come to think of it. That oppresses and undermines women’s rights.

#HijabThursday & #ADayInaVeil

We started an online campaign on the hijab by using the hashtag #adayinaveil and #HijabThursday to educate Muslims and non-Muslims on the importance of respecting the choice of women who wear the hijab. This campaign also aimed at giving non-Muslims a chance to have a feel of what wearing the hijab is all about. We got Muslims and non-Muslims alike partaking in it. The highlight of this campaign was when Access Bank in Kumasi went all day in a veil. That first day for the campaign on September 26, 2019, set the tone.

What I never envisaged was the opposition we were going to face from the online Muslim community. I, honestly, didn’t think we would be faced with opposition from our community. I had heard stories of how the lack of development in the Muslim community in Ghana was due to our lack of cohesion but I had never experienced it first-hand until the campaign began. It was disturbing and sad to hear my Muslim brothers and sisters say those leading the charge weren’t Muslim enough. Who even knows what that means? Could we not put our differences and reservations aside and come together to fight this issue that affected a big part of the community? Was it the right time to engage in trivialities?

Personally, my belief was to get all Muslims on deck to find a lasting solution to this issue. I believe that if we have internal conflicts as Muslims, we can deal with them after we’ve won the fight for the right of the Muslim woman to wear her hijab.

There was part of the Ummah that thought that some Muslim women were not observing the hijab properly which I do not dispute. But was this campaign the best platform to address it? If you want to take up advocacy of teaching Muslim women how to observe proper hijab, no-one is denying you that right. But must you verbally abuse those leading the campaign? Is your outrage even necessary? Additionally, is it right to take away the right of other Muslim women who wear the hijab? I just couldn’t wrap my head around the rhetoric.

Other non-Muslims didn’t believe Muslim women were being discriminated against because of their veil. Not knowing Muslim women were being discriminated against doesn’t invalidate the fact that it is happening. Most times, we forget our privileges are the reason why we don’t suffer discrimination, and we use the same privileges to try and bury dissent because it makes us uncomfortable.

The #Hijabisanidentity campaign pushes for the right of Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab to be free to do so without intimidation from any individual or institution.

After a lot of progress had been made for our walk, I got a call from one Adnan Adam requesting that we cancel our peaceful walk. He claimed that other people were coming together to help solve the hijab issue. The interesting part was that Mr. Adam only seemed to have found the need to write a petition after my team and I started a sustainable online campaign to get those who mattered to listen and address the discrimination towards Muslim hijabis. He like many others only had issues with the people who were leading the campaign and not because the campaign had anything wrong or wasn’t serving the agenda that needed to be discussed.

The peaceful walk came off on Saturday, October 15 across three regions; Accra, Kumasi, and Tamale. It was a success and we were overwhelmed by the massive show of support from everyone. It doesn’t end here. The journey has only just begun and we will continue to need the support of everyone till a lasting solution is found.

Per Ghanaian law, people embarking on any form of walk or demonstration must inform the police. Like any law-abiding group of people, the team wrote a letter and submitted it to the Regional Command on 30th October. When we realized a call hadn’t come after 4 days of submission, we followed up to find out what was going on. We followed for four working days before we were asked to report to the police station with our team. We thought it was a meeting to discuss our routes, but we were surprised when the Police Commander said we were not allowed to walk. This is what he said, “I won’t let you walk”. He later gave us a caveat. And that was to get a letter from the Office of the National Chief Imam to show they were in support of our walk.

We called the Chief Imam’s personal assistant and he quickly sent a letter on the official letterhead of the ONCI. The Police Chief at the Accra Command said the letter wasn’t enough. He wanted the one who signed the letter to physically present himself. The P.A., Alhaji Huzaima left his busy schedule and came to the police station. The police entered into a meeting with him but we were not allowed to join them to know what they discussed.

The police tried to convince him on why we shouldn’t hold the walk. We left the Accra Regional Command so late at night without any positive response. We went back on Friday and didn’t get any positive feedback and since we knew we had done the right thing by law, we decided to proceed with the walk.

Nima Police Command

In the process of the walk, we met the Police Chief at the Nima Divisional Command. He stopped to ask why we were walking without a police escort. Bashiratu Kamal-Muslim explained to him what we had done for the past two weeks regarding our correspondence with the Regional Command. We were later invited by the Nima Divisional Command for a meeting. The federation of Muslim lawyers sent four of their representatives to this meeting. The matter was solved amicably. The police, however, said they will invite us again if the Accra Regional Command deems it necessary.

The Way Forward

The #Hijabisanidentity campaign team as part of seeking finality is set to go to the Supreme court to

seek the interpretation of Article 21 (c) of the Constitution.

Again, at the beginning of our online campaign, we started an online petition that sought to gather enough signatories to be presented to the parliament of Ghana.

The following are ways we intend to move this campaign forward:

1. Reading our petition on the floor of Parliament.

2. Educating Muslim women on the need to defy authorities who ask them to take off their hijab in public spaces.

3. Producing an educational documentary on the constitutional rights of Muslim women.

4. A stakeholder meeting with the Office of the National Chief Imam.

5. A national dialogue with all heads of institutions regarding the hijab.

Advocacy is not cheap and if you don’t have a strong support system that keeps you going, there’s no way you can continue. Picture a community you believe you are fighting for calling you names. This campaign is not for the people leading it. No one is interested in seeking popularity with this campaign. The fight is for the sake of Allah and for our children and generations to come.

Having to work with individuals from different places but with the same passion taught me one thing. Individual differences do not matter, what’s important is the passion we bring to our advocacy work.

Gratitude

Even amid opposition from our community, some non-Muslims have believed in this fight and continue to ensure that the right of the Muslim woman is protected in their little ways.

A huge thank you to Selikem Acolatse and Esther Armah for their support when this campaign started. They took a stand and I must say, their support is well appreciated and cannot be overlooked.

I want to use this opportunity to thank individuals who believed in this campaign from the word go, you decided to stand up and voice your support for this campaign that has made us chalk this success. I’m so proud to be part of a team that isn’t interested in which name should be mentioned but how the job is executed.

Finally, let us remember that it is not the Muslim woman who is oppressed by Islam. It is the society we find ourselves in that oppresses our personal choices of wanting to use the hijab.

By Bilkis Nuhu Kokroko, Accra