Young Muslim woman Nabeela Syed, who was elected to Illinois General Assembly in the recently held US midterm elections, has said that no one can be forced to wear or nor wear the hijab.
In a video interview with an Indian news chan-nel, Nabeela Syed said, “I want to make it clear that my hijab, it was my choice to wear and it was my decision.” She said, “You cannot impose religion on anyone and you cannot force anyone to wear hijab. Likewise, you cannot force someone not to wear hijab. In both cases, we should give young women the right to choose.”
She said that she as lucky to have choice to wear the hijab. I feel proud to wear the hijab and represent Muslims, she added.
She made these remarks while responding a question in the context of the ban imposed on female students wearing the hijab in educational institutions in the Indian state of Karnataka.
Nabeela Syed, just 23-year-old Indian-American Muslim woman, created history by being elected to the Illinois General Assembly in the mid-term elec-tions held in the US. A candidate of the Democrats, she defeated the Republican candidate Chris Bose by winning 52.3% of the votes in the election.
When asked what she had to say about the cur-rent government of India, which is said to be un-sympathetic towards the country’s minorities, Na-beela said, “I want that in India It should be ensured that no person is discriminated against because of his religion. It is very important to ensure that all over the world. Here in America we have freedom of religion and freedom from religion. So you have the right to follow a religion and you also have the right not to follow any religion if you want. I believe that people should not be discriminated against because of their faith.”—INP
