(UNSPLASH / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“Through the years, we’ve had non-Muslim women share with us their own experience with the hijab. Their stories ranged from those of finding quiet empowerment under the veil, to stories of being discriminated against because of a piece of cloth they they’ve decided to wear,” Sangcopan said in a privilege speech.
Sangcopan, vice chairperson of the House Committee on Muslim Affairs, stressedt aht wearing the hijab is neither “an obligation nor an act of oppression” but is in fact, “an act of empowerment and conscious decision among women, regardless of faith, that amount to a change in today’s world where discrimination has become rampant and universal, prejudice and cruel.”
Maguindanao 2nd district Rep. Esmael Mangudadatu
(Photo by LJ Pasion|MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
He urged all concerned stakeholders to “have more faith in the principled intentions” of the BARMM’s transitional government.
“These are truly difficult times. The nation’s economy took a beating from the advent of COVID-19 but the government and the Bangsamoro leadership along with the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) members, ministries, and offices were determined to hurdle and surpass these challenges evident to what they were able to achieve to date,” he said in a statement as BARMM celebrates its Foundation Day.
Last Wednesday, the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, the House Committee on Muslim Affairs, and the Special Committee on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity started tackling several measures seeking to defer the BARMM elections scheduled on the second Monday of May 2022.
(UNSPLASH / MANILA BULLETIN)
The vice chairperson of the House Committee on Muslim Affairs cited that the House Committee on Muslim Affairs has already endorsed the plenary approval of House Bill No. 8249, which aims to promote an understanding of the Muslim tradition of wearing a hijab.
“I am urging the House Committee on Rules to calendar the bill for plenary discussion when Congress resumes session on Jan. 18.We’ve been waiting for the passage of the National Hijab Day,” she said in a Viber message.
“The same bill was approved in the House of Representatives on third and final reading last Congress. I am hoping this time, it passes into law,” she added.