A low-key event educating residents about the head covering worn by Muslim women will be held at city hall this month, apparently irritating some people.
The City for All Women Initiative is organizing the two-hour event, called Ottawa Hijab Solidarity Day, on Feb. 25.
Tong Zhao-Ansari, the community engagement coordinator for CAWI, said the event is for anyone interested in learning about the hijab and the women who wear the head covering. It’s a chance for people to hear the women’s stories and even try on a hijab, Zhao-Ansari said.
There has been supportive feedback so far, but also some “very nasty comments,” she said.
“This is really about addressing Islamophobia,” Zhao-Ansari said.
On its Facebook page, CAWI says it’s “shocked and appalled” by critical comments posted about the upcoming gathering.
Councillors’ offices reported only receiving three or four emails opposing the hijab event.
Local activist Shabnam Assadollahi wrote to Mayor Jim Watson last weekend warning him that letting a group hold the event at city hall would damage the city’s reputation “by appearing to favour one religion over others.”
“I hope you will think very carefully about the message that ‘Ottawa Hijab Day’ sends to Canadians and internationally, particularly to those women who do not have a choice, who may be trying to escape a life of oppression, circumscribed by religious extremism, where their human rights are violated and possibly even their lives are at risk,” Assadollahi writes.
Assadollahi asked Watson to tell CAWI it can’t call the event Ottawa Hijab Day because “this gives the incorrect impression that it has been officially proclaimed by the City of Ottawa.”
A spokesman for Watson said the mayor won’t intervene “in this difference of opinion between this individual and the event organizers” and that city hall has several spaces available for bookings by the public as long as the event “conforms with relevant policies.”
The city hasn’t received a request for a proclamation related to the event.