-‘It’s a grand plan to stop Muslim girl-child education’
Al-Mu’minaat, the Believing Women Organisation has revealed that the renewed assaults on the Hijab in many Southwest states in Nigeria is a grand plan by the enemies of Islam to stop Muslim girls from being educated.
The President of the organization, Hajiyah Nimatullah AbdulQuadri stated this at a world press conference held at its headquarters in Lagos to mark the 2019 edition of the World Hijab Day.
The World Hijab Day, founded in 2013 by Nazma Khan, is marked every February 1 across 140 countries worldwide, including Nigeria, to encourage women of all religions and backgrounds to wear and experience the Hijab, and also address the incessant harassment of Hijabis.
Hajiyah AbdulQuadri also stated that the discrimination against the Hijab could also be a plan to change the religion of the Muslim students, citing the pre-colonial era, which saw many Muslims forcefully abandon their religion (Islam) for Christianity in order to get educated.
She said: “Going by the prevailing attacks on Muslim students in the Hijab like never before, from Lagos schools, the University of Ibadan International School, to Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Staff School, Oyo State and Schools of Nursing in the Southwest, we have come to a conclusion that there is a grand plan playing out.
“A plan to either stop Muslim girl-children from being educated or change their religion; a colonial missionary policy in post-independent Nigeria”.
Hajiyah Abdulquadri bemoaned FG officials in government schools and establishments as well as private owners for demonstrating their hatred for Islam and Muslims.
She said: “Of particular concern today is the treatment meted out to Muslim girls and ladies wearing the Hijab. Although we have a subsisting Appeal Court judgement permitting the use of the Hijab in schools, some school heads in Lagos State have repeatedly flouted this and demonstrated contempt for this ruling.
“Almost on a daily basis, secondary school students call in to lay complaints of staff members of their schools forcing them to pull off their Hijabs”.
Also speaking at the conference, Hajiyah Sherifah Ajibade, Naibatul Amirah (Deputy President), Networking sent a strong signal to the school administrators over molestation of Muslim girl-children, saying: “We will not fold our hands and watch our children being denied of their rights to the quality life education can bring.
“We will not be returned to a position where we were denied our rights to practice our religion, forced to read Songs of Praise, have our names changed and practice a religion other than Islam”.
Hajiyah Ajibade disclosed that despite the campaign of calumny against Islam, the numbers of Muslim sisters in Hijab attaining success in their fields of study and endeavor across the country have increased sporadically.
“From schools to professions and even in businesses, we are shattering stereotypes of backwardness and breaking barriers. We are changing the narratives of failure to high achievement.
“In recent times we have had a sister in Hijab as the youngest graduating doctor from the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos, Dr. Maryam AbdulJelil Raji. Maryam Adegbite with a 4.91 CGPA was the best graduating student in UNIOSUN in 2018. The 2017 best graduating student in the University of Ilorin was a sister in Hijab too. We have recorded sisters in Hijab being called to the Nigerian Bar after our heroine, Barr. Firdaus Amasa, the pacesetter.
“Today, we also have scores of sisters in their Hijabs practicing in various professions, even as senior consultants in secondary and tertiary health facilities across the length and breadth of Nigeria”, she added.
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