Student who converted to Islam says school expelled her for wearing hijab. But school tells different story.

Student who converted to Islam says school expelled her for wearing hijab. But school tells different story.

Linde McAvoy converted to Islam a few weeks after she enrolled in the Georgia Career Institute for cosmetology last December — so she started wearing a hijab to her classes.

But according to complaint letter to GCI, McAvoy "almost immediately" began getting harassed by GCI administrators.

"For example, Joyce Meadows — GCI's president and CEO, who is also the campus director for the Murfreesboro [Tennessee] campus — started insisting that Ms. McAvoy remove the hijab, citing the school's dress code," the letter from Muslim Advocates said. "Even after Ms. McAvoy explained that she wore her hijab out of religious obligation, Ms. Meadows insisted on its removal, despite the fact that the dress code does not prohibit religious head coverings. Ms. McAvoy was repeatedly ejected from her classes for wearing her hijab."

Nimra Azmi, a staff attorney at Muslim Advocates, told the Huffington Post that it's "incredibly important for Muslim women to wear the hijab and get educated. We don't think those things are antithetical. We don't think that wearing the hijab is inherently unprofessional."

The complaint letter added that Meadows told McAvoy if she wanted to continue attending GCI she would have to remove her hijab while on campus or provide external confirmation that she wore the hijab for religious reasons — and McAvoy refused, saying the school cites no such requirement.

The letter said McAvoy continued to cover her hair at school, and then GCI expelled her in late February.

What did McAvoy have to say?

"I was expelled in a public space. It made the environment feel very hostile. It was pretty intimidating to have to choose [between] the career I'm trying to pursue and do for the rest of my life versus the religion that I'm following and hold dear to me and want to do well in," McAvoy told the Post. "I definitely felt targeted."

Source: https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/12/14/student-says-she-was-expelled-for-hijab/amp