Feb. 15, 2021
In September, when a referee told 14-year-old Najah Aqeel that she couldn’t compete in a junior varsity volleyball game because she was wearing a hijab, she was crushed.
“I was crying. I was sad and upset and angry,” recalled Najah, a high school freshman at Valor College Prep in Nashville.
The referee cited a rule established by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the body that governs most high school sports across the country noting that student athletes wearing “hair devices” more than three inches wide needed to secure prior approval from their state athletic association to compete. For athletes such as Najah, the rule meant they had to secure permission to compete while wearing their hijabs, the head coverings worn in public by some Muslim girls and women.