Story By Joyceline Natally Cudjoe
MUSLIMS
PROTEST AGAINST THE REMOVAL OF HIJAB
Muslims has gone demonstration on Friday to express
their displeasure and disapproval about the West African Examination Council’s
(WAEC) order against the use of hijabs (headscarf) during passport picture
snapping.
The demonstration went on in the Sekondi-Takoradi of
the Western Region as a result of WAEC specification sent to Schools explaining
the kind of pictures they need.
Examination Council has said to have challenges with
the kind of passport pictures sent by schools therefore sent to schools the
specification for the photograph to ensure uniformity across board.
WAEC officials in the Western Region asked candidates
taking passport-size photos during registration for the final examination in
the B.E.C.E and W.A.S.C.E to remove their headscarves as it conceals some vital
features (like forehead, nose, chin etc.) needed to be included in the passport for
easy detection of the students.
The Islamic community during the demonstration
claimed hijab is their dignity therefore by removing it means dumping away
their honour and also an infringement to their rights as Muslims.
They said the honour of an Islamic female is by
covering herself from head to toe therefore they are not ready to be
dishonoured.
The demonstrators furthered that the directives of
the Examination Council violates the Sacred rules of the Islamic Religion and
such is a sin to Allah.
However Mrs. Teye Cudjoe the Public Relations
Officer of the West African Examination Council in an interview with Joy News
said they did not target any group or religion in the distribution of the
required specification for the passport-size photos but sent it to all schools
to ensure easy and smooth work for the council due to the previous problems the
council met with the photographs of the candidates of B.E.C.E and W.A.S.C.E .
Mrs. Cudjoe suggested that if the protestors could
wear their hijab and still could show the required feature in the photographs
the council would not have problems with that.
