‘No gun for you, because you wear a hijab’ – Central Firearms registry

An Eastern Cape women’s gun competency and licence application was rejected by the Central Firearms Registry (CFR) because in her application photo she was wearing a hijab that was covering her hair but not her face.

Rushda Desai said she felt discriminated against as a woman and for her religion.

“I applied for the firearm in June 2020 and got my competency certificate in October the same year,” she said.

Yet Desai, pictured, was only informed last year her hijab was the problem in her application after waiting more than a year.

“I took off my veil that covered my face but I was not willing to take off the headscarf,” she said.

“For me, it’s more than a piece of cloth.

It’s my honour and dignity, it’s my identity as a woman,” she added.

Gun Owners of South Africa’s Girls on Fire founder Lynette Oxley said wearing hijab should not be treated as irritation and inconvenience by the CFR.

“Girls On Fire strongly condemns the trend of the CFR refusing women’s competency and licence applications if they are wearing hijabs. The hijab covers only the hair, not any facial features,” said Oxley.

Oxley said it was a serious infringement on cultural and religious beliefs.

Researcher and lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand Aaisha Dadi Patel said Muslim women should not be discriminated against for their choice to cover their hair.

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“This action does not impede their ability to carry out their work in any way and it is disappointing to see that some institutions seem to think that it does,” she said.

Dadi Patel said many legal processes that require full unobscured views of applicants’ faces have specific guidelines that allow Muslim women to ensure they satisfy the requirements of the photograph, without removing their headscarves.

“Perhaps CFR can look to these regulations and implement them instead of rejecting the participation of visibly Muslim women in their processes,” she said.

Postdoctorate research fellow at the Centre for Mediation In Africa Dr Quraysha Ismail Sooliman said the CRF’s refusal to grant licences to women wearing headscarves was Islamophobic, driven by prejudice, and exhibited a patriarchal mentality.

“It is not about safety and security and certainly not about identification because hair is easily manipulated, can be changed, removed and altered.

“The reasoning provided by the appeals board is neither sound nor logical. Such displays of misplaced power are common in many public servants who are often incompetent, insufficiently educated and skilled for their tasks or inclined to bribes,” she said.

Sooliman said considering the realities of gender-based violence in SA, it was shameful that, despite meeting all valid criteria and competencies, the CFR still made people wait for eight to 12 months before granting or refusing a licence.

“I could be dead by then, yet if the state prioritised my welfare as a woman, and was committed to addressing gender-based violence, applications by females would be fast-tracked,” she said.

She said the appeals board’s reaction and treatment of female applicants further weakened trust in security agencies to address gender-based violence.

Police spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe said police were looking into the matter.