Stop discrimination against Muslim women

“Yesterday (last week Thursday) I went to sit the Social Studies CXC exam and I was in the room for 8.45 am, as the exam was starting at 9 am. The supervisor who was handing out the examination paper, began at the front and my name was the last on the list, so I was at back. After she finished handing out the paper at front, she turned around, looked at me and said, ‘I am not giving you any of my papers to do no exam until you take that thing off your face’,” Wilson said.

“I said, ‘I am not taking anything off my face and no one could make me take anything off my face’.” Wilson said she showed her ID card to which the examiner then replied, ‘How am I supposed to know that is you?’ Wilson told her she could take her to the back of the room where she would lift the Niqab (head covering), so she could verify against the ID.

Wilson said the examiner told her, ‘We need some love in here today.’ Then she (the examiner) walked out of the classroom.

Another supervisor, Wilson said, gave her the examination paper. Wilson said after she finished the exam she went to the office to speak with the head supervisor. “She came and she spoke to me. I told her what happened and she said, ‘I really saw you this morning but actually I did not think about asking you for your ID card and asking to see your face’.” Wilson added when she returned to sit the second exam, the head supervisor came with a Muslim woman and they took her to the staff room where they asked her to raise her Niqab to identify her. She said she then came back upstairs and finished the exam. “My issue is that the head supervisor saw me that morning, why wasn’t she aware that she was supposed to take me into a private room so I could identify myself? Why did I have to go through that incident first and then have to come and complain to her before they did the proper thing?” “We need some love in here, is what that examiner told me.

What makes her I think I don’t have love in my heart? Because I am wearing my Niqab?” She said, “This is part of my religion and I choose to cover my face for the pleasure of my Lord. I think no one should judge me because I am covering my face or try to stop me from trying to succeed in certain things in my life. If the next supervisor was not there I might not have been able to sit my examination,” Wilson said.

Wilson has made a report to the Ministry of Education on the matter and said she intends to take any other action that is necessary. Wilson said discrimination against Muslim women needs to stop. “Not because we choose to cover our body and we choose to cover our face, means we are bad people,” she said. When Newsday contacted the educational institute, the person answering our call said that no one would be able to give a comment on the matter.