South Africa: Muslim women in military can wear hijab as part of uniform, amends SANDF

The military of South African has amended its dress policy by allowing Muslim women to dress headscarves as a part of their uniform, said an army spokesperson on Thursday, according to a report by ALJAZEERA.

The military court of the country dropped charges against a woman officer indicted to wear a hijab under a military beret in January 2020, as per the report.

Another incident had been reported in June 2018, criminally charging Fatima Isaacs, the major in the army, under willful resistance and failing to obey lawful instructions on being asked to remove headscarf with the uniform by her superior.

However, at the Castle of Good Hope near Cape Town, a military court withdrew the charges against Issacs with the exception to cover her head with a tight black wrap when on duty, but it shouldn't cover her ears, it reported.

The South African Defence Force (SANDF) reportedly agreed to amend its uniform policy earlier this week and allowed all the Muslim women to cover their heads when on duty.

As said by Mafi Mgobozi, the spokesman, on Thursday, "the SANDF dress regulation was updated to allow the wearing of headscarves by Muslim (women) according to stipulations in the dress regulations".

The South Africa-based Legal Resources Centre that represented Isaacs welcomed the amendment on Wednesday via Twitter.

UPDATE: The LRC has been engaged in discussions with the SANDF, resulting in the SANDF amending its religious dress policy, to allow Muslim women to wear their hijab with their military uniform. As such, we filed a Notice of Withdrawal in the Equality Court. https://t.co/hxv1v860Sf

— Legal Resources Centre (@LRC_SouthAfrica) January 27, 2021