A High Schooler Was Blocked From Playing a Basketball Game Because of Her Hijab
Je'Nan Hayes, a junior at Watkins Mill High School in Maryland, had played an entire season of basketball for her high school-until March 3. That's when she was blocked from playing, all because she was wearing a hijab.
The Washington Post reports that before the team's first regional final game, a contest official pulled her coach aside and said that Je'Nan was not allowed to play. That's because of an obscure state rule that required "documented evidence" that she was covering her head because of her Muslim faith. Je'Nan had played 24 games that season without any issues, and nobody told her team that her headscarf was an issue. The coach tried to reverse the rule before the game, but couldn't.
Her coach, Donita Adams, tried to keep the bad news from Je'Nan for as long as possible. She kept her on the bench for the whole game, even when the rest of the reserves got to play in the fourth quarter. After the opposing team won, she broke the news, and Je'Nan started to cry.
"I felt discriminated against and I didn't feel good at all," she told the newspaper. "If it was some reason like my shirt wasn't the right color or whatever, then I'd be like, 'okay.' But because of my religion it took it to a whole different level, and I just felt that it was not right at all."
The game's officials were technically following the rules, but state officials say that they took it too far, because wearing a headscarf doesn't create any risks or competitive advantages. (In fact, Nike just released a hijab custom-made for athletes.)"Everybody has apologized and understanding that, if the situation happens again, we'll deal with it in better fashion, much better fashion," Earl Hawkins, the county's athletic director, told the Post.
Je'Nan told her student newspaper, The Current, that she hopes to get the rule changed and spread awareness about Muslim girls in sports. "As time goes by, we're getting more modern and we're changing and we're out here. We exist. Muslim athletes exist," she said. "I hope to spread to other girls and people who are scared to try out for sports or just to do anything in general because of their religion [that] it should not have to hold you back…if there's a will there's a way."
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