A Muslim woman's firearm licence application was rejected, allegedly because she was wearing a hijab on her application photo.
The Portfolio Committee on Police will be submitting a parliamentary question to the Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Sizakhele William Dyantyi, after a Muslim woman who works as a social worker was rejected for her firearm licence because she was wearing a hijab on her application photograph.
Farzana Rahiman of Parow, who worked for 15 years as a social worker in the provincial government and now works for a local NGO in the same capacity, became a victim of crime in recent years.
Rahiman shared that she and other staff members were held hostage inside their offices in the Northern Suburbs district, and in another incident, a knife-wielding woman threatened harm. In both incidents, the social workers had removed children from their parents.
Rahiman, who is also a mother of two, made an application for a firearm in February in which she submitted the relevant reports and completed the practical portion of the application for firearm training.
