MPAC, MCAN task Buhari on hijab controversy

The Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC) and Muslim Corpers’ Association of Nigeria (MCAN) have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to speak out personally on the hijab ban controversy to stem attacks and discrimination against Muslims women.

Executive chairman of MPAC Disu Kamor said yesterday in a statement that following Buhari’s comment that he might consider banning hijab over the Boko Haram female suicide attacks, posters of the ‘Federal Government’ banning the ‘burqa’ (veil) have appeared at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) office, New Garage, Ibadan Oyo State.

He also listed that as at yesterday Muslim sisters at the National Orthopeadic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos (NOHIL) and University College Hospital’s (UCH) School of Nursing, Ibadan are still prevented from using the hijab, despite official circulars allowing that.

“A niqabite (Muslim woman with face cover) was molested by soldiers on Friday 8 January, 2016 in Meiran, Lagos. Her Niqab was pulled off her head, and all she could do was ‘crawl away in hurtful and humiliating tears.’

“Also, a prospective hijabi youth corps member was rejected at a Military Hospital in Bonny Camp, Lagos, and was told blatantly she could not work there because it is now a policy that the hijab is banned from all military installations in Nigeria,” he said.

What was done to all these innocent Muslims meets the definition of Islamophobia, he said.

Also MCAN said in a communique of a meeting with and other Islamic organizations signed by MCAN national president Abdullahi Imam Ishaq and secretary general Abdulsalam Adam Olalekan warned security personnel to refrain from harassing Muslim women.