The South African army dropped charges against an officer who had been charged for wearing a Muslim headscarf under her military cap.
Major Fatima Isaacs was criminally charged in June 2018 with deliberate disobedience and failing to obey a lawful instruction after her superior asked her to remove the hijab.
The army removed all charges at a military court at the Castle of Good Hope near Cape Town. It said it would allow her to wear a hijab provided it is a tight headscarf that will not cover her ears and must be plain in color.
“The withdrawal of charges is subject to her obedience with certain restrictions relating to the wearing the headscarf,” the officer´s lawyer, Amy-Leigh Payne, of the Legal Resource Centre told AFP.
However, Isaacs is planning to challenge this in the equality court over regulations confining religious wear. Isaacs has served in the army for the past 10 years as a clinical forensic pathologist.
“While there is some relief that the criminal charges have been withdrawn, this withdrawal does not address the unconstitutional religious dress policy, said Payne. In fact, the policy remains in force”.
The army’s spokesman in Western Cape province, Colonel Louis Kirstein, said the armed forces had held meetings with the Muslim Judicial Council, a group of Islamic clerics, over the dress code.
The group’s deputy president Abdul Khaliq Ebrahim Allie said the council is calling for the “recognition of the wearing of the scarf by Muslim women” in the military.
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