Members of the Dunedin Muslim community met with members of Parliament from the Labour party at Al Huda Mosque last night to discuss what now following the Otago Girl’s High School incident, in which pupil Hoda Al Jamaa was injured and her hijab forcibly removed.
The February 9 incident received global attention as the #justiceforhuda hashtag trended.
Wellington MP Ibrahim Omer said he was glad the incident went viral because it opened up discussion about issues facing Muslim and refugee communities.
Schools should be safe, but New Zealand had a long way to go in terms of addressing problems with racial and religious discrimination, Mr Omer said.
A female teacher who worked for OGHS, speaking in a personal capacity, said she was saddened by the abuse the school received after news of the attack went viral.
She challenged the Government to address problems with a lack of funding for mental healthcare.
Hoda’s father, Ibrahim Aljomaa, said hearing about the attack was retraumatising to his daughter and called for all to help build a better future.
Taieri MP Ingrid Leary said the incident highlighted the need for better educational materials in schools to be rolled out quickly.
She praised the school for showing a genuine willingness to learn and look at where mistakes were made, but also wanted school guidelines changed to allow the communication of disciplinary results to families of all involved.
OGHS principal Bridget Davidson yesterday sent a message to the school community saying it was following a rigorous and fair process despite media pressures on the leadership and the School board.
The school was committed to learning from the incident.
‘‘There are many lessons that we can take from this situation and I have a number of actions that I will be working through to ensure that we come out of this in a better place than we started and that we continue to move rapidly forward on a pathway to greater understanding between all students, groups and cultures at our school,’’ she said.
