My name is Fathima Sahar, a first year student at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Moratuwa. I am one of three students who are affected by the ban on the niqab by the University. I thought of writing this because our side of story has been literally ‘veiled’ away from the public. The media that reported the issue only spoke to the University authorities and did not contact us. The University too, that is so eager to see our faces did not want to hear our voices, ideas and thoughts. Before they decided to ban the niqab – the University did not trouble itself to give us a hearing, to discuss, to find a solution to whatever problem they perceived.
In that sense, the way we have been treated is no different to the way many of our sisters in many other contexts are treated. Women and their voices are hardly allowed to be heard but kept muted and suppressed. And in that sense at least, I feel it is my duty to speak up and speak out.
I was born in a refugee camp. My parents are from Mannar and were victims of the ethnic cleansing of the Northern Muslims by the LTTE in 1990. Like most refugee students I saw a University education as a passport to a better future and a means for empowerment to fight against the type of injustices that my parents suffered. So my journey from Puttalam to Moratuwa was hard and difficult yet it was inspired by the hope of something better.
