A young Ghanaian Muslim lady by name Zainab Alhassan has shared her pitiful story on social media describing how and why she was excluded from annual Ghana Most Beautiful beauty pageant.
Sharing
the incident on her Facebook page, Zainab accused the beauty pageant of since
they dropped her after she refused to remove her Hijab.
“Zainab you are very good but since You decided
not to remove your hijab there is nothing we can do,” she
wrote.
She also narrated a few occasions where she had deal with a discriminatory circumstance of that sort.
Read Her Statement below:
Most often at times when people talk about being
discriminated against based on their skin color, religion, tribe or even sexual
orientation, you may feel disconnected or assume they are exaggerating simply
because it’s not happened to you before.
In high school, we were asked not to wear our
hijab even if we leave the school compound, we agreed. We were then told that
even when praying we should not wear the hijab but rather put our pillowcase on
our head. Don’t tell me because it’s a missionary school for I know it’s a
government school and it’s the government that pays all salaries.
After Senior high school, I decided to attend a
radio school because of my passion for journalism, one of the instructors told
me I was very good and will go far but he will give me a piece of advice, he
told me that “Zainab if you want to go far in this profession (TV) you must
remove your hijab” hurt as I was by that I thought it will not come to that for
I believed I was so good that no employer will ignore me because of my hijab
but it happened two times I was told the job is mine if and only if I took the
hijab off, I didn’t so I lost that opportunity.
Just a few days ago I decided to try my luck on
one of the most popular reality Tv shows in Ghana. Ghana’s Most Beautiful. I
know it’s a good opportunity for anyone who wanted to make an impact in their
community to sell themselves and open great doors of sponsorship for them in
their future activities. And of course, I’m unemployed so it could fetch me
some money and help me land a job or two if I am lucky enough to go through.
During the auditions I did great, I didn’t flop
for once, I didn’t shake or become super nervous in fact I was exuding
confidence but it took a different turn when the issue of my hijab came up, I
was asked why I wore it to the auditions, I explained, again I was asked if I
will take it off in the course of the contest if I’m asked due to one activity
or the other, I told them in this day and age, there’s really nothing that one
cannot do in her hijab. Another question was asked that since I’m insisting I
will not remove it “ do you bath in your hijab” as ridiculous as that question
was I still answered, oh I was also asked how I make my hair, I told them I go
to the salon obviously. In fact, about 40% of the questions asked were based on
my hijab.
The time of reckoning came when they were to pick
those moving on to the next stage, they mention your name and tell you your
fate. I was the fourth to be called and I stepped forward and he said: “ Zainab
you are very good but since You decided not to remove your hijab there is
nothing we can do.” I was devastated but I kept it cool. I am sure the girls
there selected to move to the next stage were very good no doubt, and I cannot
tell if they did better than me which is very possible. What I did not
understand why my hijab could be a hindering factor to my progress in the
competition.
Will I keep losing opportunities because of my
hijab? Most definitely but will I ever take it off to please someone, hell no.
But we will fight, we will go all out for this struggle and we must win it. Our
younger sisters and daughters must not and will not lose opportunities simply
because they choose to wear the hijab, not as long as we leave in a secular and
democratic society.
#hijabIsanIdenty
#hijabIsanIdenty
No comments