New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Students won’t get day off for Muslim Eid
Hamden kids can mark holiday in ’23
HAMDEN — During Imaan Masood’s freshman year at Hamden High School, Eid al-Fitr arrived right just before finals.
Masood remembers having to choose between a vital day of class and the Muslim holiday, which falls at the end of Ramadan and comes about 10 days earlier each year.
“I can’t imagine if Eid had been on a day of finals,” she said. “It’s honestly like really troubling to have to choose between something that we hold really close to our hearts ... and school. It’s a big choice to make, especially when you have projects, finals, essays.”
Masood took the day off. When she arrived at school on a later date to take her English final, she said, the teacher gave a prompt that was unfamiliar to her.
A friend explained to the teacher that Masood had missed class on the day they covered the topic, Masood said.
This Monday, Masood again will have to choose whether to go to school or celebrate Eid al-Fitr. But next year, students, including Masood’s younger brother, will not have to make that choice thanks to a Board of Education decision to add the holiday to the 2022-23 academic calendar.
The decision, made in February, also added days off for Three Kings Day and Juneteenth. It comes two years after a group of students came together to advocate to add Eid al-Fitr as a school holiday.
Next year, the celebration will fall during April vacation but still is recognized as its own day off on Hamden’s academic calendar.
Mariam Khan, a former Hamden High School student who in 2020 served as the student representative to the Board of Education and since has been elected as a full-fledge member, said Hamden is among the first districts in the state to give students the day off on Eid al-Fitr.
Bridgeport made the decision earlier this month, and Manchester did so two years ago, according to the Journal Inquirer.
Khan was part of the group of students who rallied in 2020 to advocate to add Eid al-Fitr to the academic calendar. To be able to vote for the change as a board member “was a really precious moment of mine,” Khan said.
The move not only prevents students who celebrate Eid al-Fitr from missing school, but it also gives Muslim students “a sense of value and belonging,” Khan said.
“This is really important to so many Muslim students, and even non-Muslim students,” said Khan. She remembered how students spoke in favor of the change at a 2020 Board of Education meeting.
Another recent Hamden High alum and practicing Muslim in public office is Abdul Osmanu. He graduated in 2019 and now represents the town’s 3rd District on the Legislative Council.
Osmanu recalled what it was like to miss a day of class on Eid al-Fitr.
“I’d have to coordinate everything with the teacher,” he said. “It was just an added layer of trying to make sure that following my own religious faith did not result in some sort of penalty against my own academic progress.”
Seeing the Board of Education address that problem for future generations was “heartwarming,” Osmanu said.
“I have a lot of gratitude toward Mariam (and) some of the other Muslim students who were able to voice (their) concerns,” he said.