A young Muslim student, Faridah Nabunya went to Target Senior Secondary School in Wobulenzi town council in Luweero district to write her S4 final exams. But she did not know she was going to be told to undress or leave the examination room.

Faridah was dressed in her Islamic veil (hijab) and was confronted and refused entry into the hall to write her examination paper by one of the invigilators identified as Madam Jane Nakazibwe Lwanyaaga.

Madam Jane reportedly ordered Faridah to remove the veil or risk being prevented from writing the examination paper. Faridah pleaded for entry and reminded the invigilator that she had been allowed entry in all the other examinations before since Uganda does not discriminate against the Islamic dress code, but all her pleadings fell on deaf ears.

It took the intervention of the headmaster before Faridah could enter to write her exams, by that time her colleagues had already spent over 30 minutes.

Unfortunately the Uganda National Examination board did not give additional time to make up for the 30 minutes lost.

Faridah’s case is not an isolated one, there are several issues going on all over Uganda to which the Muslim community is not happy about. Several students have complained about the same ill-treatment meted out to students who eventually have to take off the veils just to satisfy the invigilators.

Our investigations have revealed that Uganda allows Muslim students to use their hijab to take passport pictures for the examination.

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