A series of portraits, run in The New York Times on March 7th 2020, highlighting the stories of four women affected by Quebec’s secularism law.
Nour had dreams of being a Crown Prosecutor in Quebec, but since the province passed a secularism law banning her from wearing a hijab at work, she is now part of a legal team suing the government instead. She asked, “Why is it O.K. for a man with a beard or a woman wearing a cross under her turtleneck to work as a state prosecutor but it’s not O.K. for a woman to wear a hijab?”
Amrit moved nearly 3000 miles away from her home in Quebec to work in her chosen profession as a teacher. In British Colombia, she is not barred from wearing her turban at work, saying, “Quebec asking me to take off my turban is like asking me to cut off a limb”.
Carolyn teaches math and sciences at a Montreal high school. Under the law, she is barred from being promoted so long as she wears her kerchief, indicating her married status in the Orthodox Jewish faith. She asks, “how is a teacher supposed to tell a student to curtail their dreams?”
Sumayya’s future is uncertain. With a bachelor’s degree in education, her job prospects have shrunk since the bill’s passage. Having worn the hijab since she was 13 years old, she considers it a part of her. In response to some feminists in Quebec viewing her headscarf as a symbol of oppression, she says, “feminism is having the choice to do what you want to do”.