Mariam Saghrouni’s testimony in the European Parliament

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am sorry but I am not used to speak in public; the only audience in front of which I am used to speak to is in my class room.

I would like to introduce myself, my name is Mariam, I’m 14 and a half, I am a student in year 10 to whom the access to classes has been refused as soon as the first day of the school year, on the 2nd of September.
The years before, that is to say for the last 3 years, I have been in the same high school as today and I had been wearing Hijab. I never had problems, I was always a discreet girl, I had friends from all cultures and I had good relationships with my teachers and with the school administration. I had good results. The administration has testified that I had a good behaviour. However on the first day of school I was wearing only a small scarf on my head and I was brought to the administration where they ordered me to take it off, so I had to choose between wearing this or being expelled from school. They did not stop humiliating me and asking me ironical questions. I didn’t want to take it off so I was not able to go to class with my friends and teachers. I wasn’t left in a classroom, I was in an office. I couldn’t go out for break and I wasn’t allowed to go to the toilets at the same times as the others because they were afraid that I might see them.

I felt like a criminal, as if the fact that I had some centimetres of material on my head was a really big crime. One teacher laughed at me and ridiculed my opinion. I was like an animal in a zoo.

I came to school to be in class with my friends and I am living a real discrimination. I made a lot of efforts to be there but even if I changed the accessory that was on my head the problem was the same. I was isolated from my friends and it is an injustice that a girl of my age should not have to suffer.

I hope that this will change and that we will be living with respect.
Am I not allowed to be a French Muslim? My country is France and my religion is Islam, and I care about both of them.

I am not a danger, what I am in now is very hard and I am certainly not a criminal.

Salamu Alaikum Brothers and Sisters,

My name is Najat, 25 years old, I wear Hijab.

I call to you to help me after what happened to me yesterday, something that I still cannot realise.

Indeed, coming back from university (Paris 8), yesterday (29/09/04) around 4:30 pm I fainted in the street in St Denis. The firemen came but from the very beginning they were very aggressive to me and to the sisters who were with me.

My friends asked them to bring me to hospital but the firemen refused meanly. Then they finally put me in their van and started to insult me.

One of the three firemen strangled me telling me at the same time: “Stop this fuss or I bring you to the police station” (he thought I was an illegal immigrant).

The two others immobilized my feet and my hands and the third one carried on strangling me as well as making fun of me.

I tried to get away from him but at this moment he punched me twice with an extreme violence.

I do not even dare to repeat all the insults the three firemen threw at me.

It has been difficult to lodge a complaint because the policemen did not want to believe me. In the medical certificate it is stated that I have got a haematoma in the left mandibular area of my face and I was put off work for 10 days.

My doctor prescribed me some radiographies to do in emergency today (30/09/04), and I unfortunately told the radiologist that I had been assaulted by firemen and he refused to believe me as well.

Help me my sisters and brothers to put an end to all the injustices we suffer in France: land of the Rights of men and WOMEN…

Jazoukoumo Allaho Khayrane

Najat:najatos2000@yahoo.fr

As-Salaamu 'alaykum,

I am a Muslim Woman from Finland and I wear hijab. I needed to renew my passport and I went to the police station thinking that there's no problem with getting my passport with hijab. I had a passport before with hijab but now I had moved into a new town.

The police denied to give me a passport unless I remove my headscarf or as he put it "place it unnoticeably in the back of my head". I also heard that I wasn't the only sister in this town who was denied the right to wear hijab in the passport picture (in other towns in Finland it has been ok). So with the help of another sister we complained to the Parliamentary Ombudsman (nearly the same as Chancellor of Justice).

A year later the decision came.

"The Deputy-Ombudsman also adopted a position on whether a Muslim woman has a right to wear a scarf in a passport photograph. He pointed out that freedom of religion includes both the right to profess one’s religion and the right to live according to it in practice. Intervening in the outward manifestations demanded by a religion can mean intervening also in internal freedom to practise religion. In the view of the Deputy- Ombudsman, freedom of religion also includes the religious obligation, which some Islamic women observe, to wear a scarf."
 

The Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland

Jazaakum Allaah khayran

wassalaam,

Maryum

Finland

I have received an email on conference on hijab issue. I am from Turkey, currently living in Leicester. I was sacked from my job and study due to the fact that I wear hijab. As you are aware this is a very big issue in Turkey too. I have a photograph exhibition on banning of wearing hijab in Turkey, which explains dramatically and very clearly. If u give me an opportunity to have this exhibition on the conference that u r organizing would be really appreciated. In addition I wrote; 2 articles on the issue which again indicates how serious this problem in Turkey and effecting many lives and hopes of young girls and their families. Is it possible for you to give me a short time in the conference to be the voice of those who suffers of this legislation in Turkey. This would help to get support for these sisters and get their voice to be heart

I look forward to hearing from you

Your sister in Islam
Habibe Yesilova