Section 38 (1) of the 1999 constitution and Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Right, provide:
“Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”
In 2009, I was chanced to travel outside Nigeria. Armed with my International Passport, I headed for the US embassy on Walter Carrington in V/I.
Long story short, I got to the desk of the officer just inside the gate, which is the first point of contact and first thing she said to me was, “you need another passport showing your ears or you can’t proceed with the process”. Taken aback, I could only mutter “Oh! Do I really have to do that?”
And with dull, flat, seemingly uninterested eyes, she looked up at me and said, “you can’t go beyond this point without it”.
This has been the fate of so many sisters, mothers, wives and daughters in their quest to travel outside the shores of this country such that when a Muslimah has to travel, she thinks twice and prays more.
It still rages on today.
CASE STUDY #1
Muslim women who wear the Hijab are often asked to adjust it to expose their ears or to take it off completely to capture photos for official documents. More and more muslim women experience this trying to make travel passport . From the experience of muslim women I have spoken to in the course of gathering facts for this article, the officials act like you’re a fanatic when you refuse and they tell you it is a Federal Government rule. One was lucky, on one such occasion a muslim staff there mentioned to her it was all false and only after a senior member of staff intervened was she able to to take a photograph without having to be stripped of her rights.
In her words, “the same event played out a few months back at FRSC office in Ikeja, Lagos. This time, the Muslim staff I was referred to tried to convince me to comply. ‘Ko si nkankan mbe’, muslim lawa naa’ (it’s nothing difficult, I am a Muslim too) I was told. In the end I left without accomplishing my mission to the FRSC office and had to go to the Ojodu office where no one even took a second look at my Hijab.
More recently, yesterday, someone I know was told at the passport office at Obalende (very popular) to completely take off her Hijab or ‘take your papers and get out’. Sadly, scared, she complied. This is a document she needs to perform Hajj this year. How ridiculous is that! Appearing without a Hijab on your way to Makkah?!
CASE STUDY #2
Another sister who was at the Festac Passport office, same yesterday, was never queried about her Hijab.
What does this look like? Your guess is as good as mine. The outcome of your passport experience depends on the whims of the person at the capture machine or interrogation desk in my case. If s/he is biased against muslims he decides to humiliate you. Sometimes you hear people query, ‘what are you covering?’
Another Sister had a similar experience in Festac passport office in 2006.
‘I insisted that I would not show my ears and it caused a lot of uproar, the first “Oga ” that came around insisted that I remove it, I remained adamant, we were taken to another Oga who asked the woman who kept refusing me to show evidence dt I had to show my ears. Of course she had none and simply alleged that I was a fanatic and would not be the first Muslim she would attend to (very true!, more trouble on the way?). The oga mandated her to take my picture with my hijab. When we got into the room she stated all men should leave the room so that I could remove my hijab against her Superior’s directives. When I remained adamant, she said she would not take my picture and left in anger. Another staff came to take the shot. Alhamdulillah!
Sadly, lots of Muslim women are easily cowed when it comes to the hijab.
Question is: Are Muslims (women or men) excluded from the constitution of this country in which everyone’s rights are enshrined? If we aren’t, then, we need to seek an official ruling on this so that Muslim women can start to go legal on these situations. And claim damages too.
My story and that of the Sisters cited above are not the only ones.
One thing is certain in fighting all these. We need to get our house in order before taking this up, else this same so called ‘Muslims lawa naa’ will be remain obstacles.
Back to my Li’l tree house
While my friends and I were discussing this, someone asked: Why are our Akhees silent! Why? This is their battle too!
While we were pondering a reasonable excuse for them, another said, ‘May Allah save us from this o. I read recently that a brother was told to shave his beard before he was snapped for his passport.
Well, I can’t confirm this but if it’s true and you are reading this, do say something please.
A Useful Reminder from the Prophet Muhammad SallALLAHU Alayhi wa Salam
“When you fear someone will harm you”. There are many duaas the Rasool sallALLAHU ‘ alayhi wa sallam has taught which if engaged in sincerely and with faith,positive outcomes are not far behind.
Hisn Al-Muslim – اللَّهُمَّ اكْفِنِيهِمْ بِمَا شِئْت
132. Allaahummak-fineehim bimaa shi’ta.
O Allaah, suffice (protect) me against them however You wish.
aameen
Right now, I’m thinking, some Muslimah somewhere would be thinking, on seeing this, that “these extremists have started again” #it’sasorryworldwelivein.
I couldn’t care less anyway.
Dear readers, our solutions lie within. We need to BE muslims, when there’s disunity, the Kufaars will always find a way to get at us, let’s start with re-orientating ourselves then take it up from there.
May Allah unite us all. Aamin
mojisolaadebola 