It's Friday, so that's a good thing.
But I can't go on today without sharing what happened to my sister yesterday. So is this just
ignorance or just plain ole discrimination? My sister is a practicing Muslim
woman. Now with that being said, I’m not sure if that’s the correct terminology
(to say she’s practicing) as she’s been that way for a couple of years now. But
before I get side tracked with that she went to renew her license yesterday at
the dreaded DMV and was told to remove her khimar (scarf). She refused to do so
but they insisted and somewhere along the lines there was confusion as to why
she couldn’t take her picture with it on. The woman told her “they don’t do
that here anymore”. What DON'T they do? And why was that even mentioned? She
asked to speak with a supervisor and they also refused her saying she had to
move the scarf off of her hairline and show some hair. She also iterated what
the previous representative said by telling her to take it off then put it back
on. Now my sister is no fair weather Muslim- meaning she wears the scarf at ALL
times and doesn’t just take it off when she feels she doesn’t want to wear it
in public. She's always garbed up or totally covered (clothing wise) and hides
behind the front door to open it if she’s not presentable (head wrapped, etc)-
so why would she even do such a thing in PUBLIC and take off her scarf. The
supervisor then asked her if she wore it for religious reasons. How dumb is
that to ask this question to someone who obviously looks like a Muslim woman.
The scarf isn’t just wrapped around her head like Jill Scott’s was in her
“Getting in the Way” video or whatever video she wore a scarf twisted in the
back. It’s very unfortunate for my sister that I wasn’t there b/c had I been
they would’ve heard it all and we would’ve been on the news that night! I
would’ve made a scene for sure. She’s more timid and doesn’t invite
confrontation into her life but I’m the very opposite of that and if something
needs to be said, I’m the one you go to to have it said. I told her she needs
to contact the news station and have NBC 10
Investigators come out there and investigate this b/c it was very
much discrimination. I on the other hand am not Muslim and I feel bad for my
sister and never want her to be ashamed of her faith b/c she’s a Muslim woman.
I try to assist her in defending it but people these days are just plain ole
stupid, ignorant and just don’t know. They make me want to shake the stupidity
out of them. My guess is they just set themselves up for a pretty lawsuit. Please, if you’d like to comment on this, let me know your
thoughts about this issue.
Traditional head wrap
vs
Non traditional Muslim head wrap
People, please wake up!
As always, your resident sewaholic,
Sincere Jones
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