๐๐ข๐ฃ๐๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐: ๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐ฌ ๐๐๐ง๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐
For over five decades, Muslims in Singapore have been asking for the rights of our daughters, our sisters, our mothers to wear hijab without discrimination.
And for over five decades, we have been told to wait. To be patient. To work quietly behind the scenes. To leave it to the Malay PAP MPs.
But what have we gained?
Some progress after Faisal Abdul Manap raised the issue in Parliament.
From the PAP MPs... only excuses. More silence. More betrayal.
When we worked on the hijab issue from 1999, and in 2002, when young Muslim girls were expelled from school for wearing the hijab, we tried everythingโฆ
Meetings.
Letters.
Petitions.
Quiet negotiations. We even sought legal redress. The Malay MPs were not only unhelpfulโฆ they resisted us.
They told us to stop. They justified the discrimination.
Yatiman Yusof told me that it was a mistake for Malaysia to allow hijab in school.
He said that if Singapore allowed hijab, in 25 years, we would kill each other.
Dr Yaacob Ibrahim repeated the government line that the hijab threatened โcommon space.โ He told us that โmost Muslimsโ agreed with the banโฆthough he never showed who these Muslims were.
He never once publicly said the ban was wrong.
Masagos Zulkifli was seen as more Islamic than Yaacob. But what did he do?
He defended the banโฆ equating it with the criminalisation of gay sex. He claimed that every community has to sacrifice something for harmony.
He said the hijab was that sacrifice.
Imagineโฆ a Muslim Minister arguing that obedience to Allah must be given up to maintain harmony in a country that claims to be multiracial and inclusive.
These are the PAP Malay MPs. They do not simply accept the banโฆ.
They support forcing our sisters to remove their hijab.
But this is not simply about Yaacob. It is not about Masagos. It is not even about Halimah, Zaqy, or Intan.
It is about the PAP.
When you enter the PAP, you adopt the PAPโs values. You speak
their language. You serve their narrative.
Even if you wear the hijab. Even if you once prayed in the mosque beside us. Once you wear the PAP badge, your loyalty is no longer to the ummah. It is to the party.
That is why Malay PAP MPs cannot speak for us. They are not a bridge.
They are a barrier. They are gatekeepers, not advocates.
And when we speak, they tell us to stop. When we demand our
rights, they say we are being divisive.
They do not challenge the ban. They justify it.
And worse, they condemn those who do.
We must learn from this.
We do not need another Malay PAP MP to โwork behind the scenes.โ We need leaders willing to speak the truthโฆ
Publicly. Boldly. Persistently.
The hijab is not a threat to harmony. Discrimination is.
And it is time we stopped waiting for permission to be treated with dignity.
May Allah grant us leaders who fear Him more than they fear losing their position.
And may He grant our sisters the ability to live with dignity and Islam.