The student also requested that the other matter be speeded up. “With regard to PE my taking part in regular sessions with the rest of the class is out of the question. Taking this into account, there must be some way I can be assessed and graded. It would be unreasonable for this to cost me my diploma.”
Hanne offered to forward the pupil’s inquiries about the niqab higher up in the system, to the lawyers at the county government level. “But along with the recommendation that this is not something desirable on our part.”
“That’s fine,” Ayan quickly wrote back. “But in the meantime I’ll wear it in school and take it off in class if a teacher asks me.”
Hanne’s answer came right away. “You are not to do that. You are to follow my interpretation of the regulations until such time as another decision is made.”
Ayan took a couple of minutes to consider the matter. “Then I would like to see these regulations you are interpreting.”
Hanne asked her to look at the school rules, specifically paragraph four. She also wrote that expecting each teacher to ask Ayan to remove an item of clothing would be a needless waste of time. It would lead to unnecessary disruptions. The school’s employees had to be able to identify a pupil without having to take her aside and speak to her.
“I will read the paragraph inshallah. Individual teachers already have to ask pupils to take down their hoods or remove their caps, so why should they not use as much time on me as they do other pupils? I only want to wear it in the corridors and I do not see what difficulty this can cause,” Ayan wrote. Hanne had left for a meeting by this time and wrote a short reply to Ayan’s e-mail just before she left work for the day. “We’re not going to make much headway with this. My instructions remain the same. The county authorities should get back to me before too long, but for the time being you are to act according to my instructions.”
That afternoon Ayan found the school rules and checked out paragraph four. Under the heading “Orderliness and Behavior,” it stated that “pupils are to be punctual, turn up prepared and actively participate in class, schoolwork is to be carried out within the stipulated time, all pupils are to act in a respectful and polite manner, contribute to a work-conducive environment and display regard and respect to fellow students and others. Bad language, violence, offensive or threatening behavior or other breaches of generally accepted norms of behavior are not acceptable, nor are pornographic, racist or other material of an offensive nature permitted at school.”
It made no mention of clothing.
The next morning she copied and pasted the entire text into an e-mail to the principal. “Is this the paragraph you were talking about? Because as far as I can see there is nothing here allowing you to dictate what I can wear as I am neither causing offense to anybody nor exposing them to danger.”
“Your familiarizing yourself with the school rules is commendable,” Hanne replied. “I was referring to the following sentence: ‘Pupils shall follow the directives of the school and its employees.’” She added that she had already got word back from the county director supporting her opinion with regard to the niqab.
Ayan’s reply was swift. “I had taken that sentence into consideration, and the school employees can ask me to take my feet down off a chair or lower my voice, but what business is it of theirs what I wear, when it is not something that has been legally determined. I would like to read the grounds on which the county director based this decision, it cannot merely be based upon your recommendation.”
Hanne sent a brief reply that, pending the decision of the lawyers, Ayan had to do as the principal decided. “You need to act in accordance with that,” she concluded.
The final-year pupil’s tone conveyed a deep distrust not only of Hanne’s authority as principal, but of the entire system. Ayan wanted to make her own rules, challenge the old ones. Deep down, Hanne could not help being a tad impressed. After all, this was exactly how she encouraged her students to act. Think for yourself! Beat your own path. Seek out information, find things out, read, check up.
The principal was anxious to see if Ayan would follow her instructions. She hoped the self-confident young woman would see sense and not sabotage her education.
15
STRANGE BIRD
Ayan’s sister, Leila, was now fifteen years old. On her first day at lower secondary two years earlier, she had turned up in bright green pants and a red sweater, and wearing large round glasses. The other girls were wearing pastel colors and light tones.
She came across as tough and a little rough at the edges, someone who demanded respect—and got it. She played football in PE class and dived in swimming, and her Facebook profile looked like any other girl’s. Still, she was different. When she wore a short white dress just like the others did for the Constitution Day celebrations, she received praise for her looks from the other girls for the first time.
“You look lovely!” exclaimed her classmates when she finally dressed like them.
“That’s, eh … lovely!” they said when she turned up with intricate copper henna patterns on her hands and running up her arms after Muslim feasts.
She was an exotic bird, accepted, at times admired, but mostly overlooked. The important things took place outside and away from her; she was not in on anything. She was like Teflon. None of the other girls attached themselves to her. None of them let her in on their secrets. And what is a teenage
