Headscarf case delayed
|Published
THE ACCUSED, Major Fatima Isaacs, consults with Brigadier-General Mafi Mgobozi, the SANDF’s director of defence corporate communication. Picture: Supplied THE ACCUSED, Major Fatima Isaacs, consults with Brigadier-General Mafi Mgobozi, the SANDF’s director of defence corporate communication. Picture: Supplied
The contentious question of what to do with officers in the military who wear religious attire with their military uniform remains unanswered, as the disciplinary case of Major Fatima Isaacs, accused of violating the SANDF dress code, has been postponed.
But “interim relief” for Muslim women in the forces has been discussed and ratified by the Military Command Council, and a process is under way to shape the policy.
Siphiwe Dlamini, the Department of Defence’s head of communication, said: “A determination is under consideration to grant interim relief to women in the SANDF to wear an under-scarf in conformity with the SANDF dress code. An instruction to effect this ratification is being developed. The judicial process presently unfolding is a separate matter, as it is before the court and cannot be interfered with,” said Dlamini.
Isaacs appeared before Military Judge Willem Venter in the Military Court at the Castle of Good Hope this week, and said that she had changed her legal representative.
She asked for the postponement as her new lawyer, Mandivavarira Mudarikwa from the Legal Resources Centre, needed time to get up to speed with the matter. The prosecutor agreed to the request and postponed the case to November 6.
Meanwhile, she continues to work as a clinical forensic pathologist at 2 Military Hospital in Wynberg, wearing her headscarf under her beret.
Outside the court, Nazeema Mohamed, a labour expert helping Isaacs with her case, said: “For the past 10 years of service to the military, she (Isaacs) was allowed on and off to wear a headscarf. Previously there were superiors or commanders in the military, some who were Muslim, who allowed her to cover her hair.
“Unfortunately there is a colonel who joined 2 Military hospital, and he has been making Islamophobic comments. He is the one who issued the final written warning, and then charged her for wearing the headscarf,” said Mohamed.
“There is a precedent already in the Labour Courts through the CCMA with regard to discrimination. We hoped the SANDF would be cognisant of such issues already,” she said.
According to Muslim custom, women are required to cover the shape of their bodies. In the case Mohamed mentioned, a Correctional Services officer, Fairouz Adams, was suspended with full pay after reporting for work in her khaki uniform skirt and shirt, with the shirt not tucked in, and a khaki headscarf.