‘I said what I said,’ Kenya Defense CS defends Muslim women’s right to wear hijab

By: HOL AND HORNDIPLOMAT

Kenyan Defense Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has doubled down on his statements defending the right of Muslim girls and women to wear their hijabs in Kenya while criticizing the media for manipulating his message.

The CS made a speech on Tuesday at the inaugural Quranic competition at Sir Ali Sports Club in Nairobi, where he defended the right of Kenyan Muslim women to wear their hijab in public.

“If you have a problem with the hijab – our girls, our wives, our sisters – wearing hijab, and you’re in Kenya, then you should better leave the country because they will wear their hijab.

Kenyan media outlets, including the Nation Africa, ran a provocative headline which suggested that the Defense Secretary was advocating a Taliban-like enforcement of the hijab.

The human rights organization, Amnesty International, fact-checked the article and found that Duale affirmed women’s right to wear the hijab and called on Nation Africa to retract the story.

“As a member of the community and religion that has suffered the greatest forms of persecution world over, I will not be cowed by the bias and distorted information the media outlets have chosen to run with,” he tweeted.

“I was addressing members of the Islamic faith who know for a fact that I said nothing but the truth. I still am unapologetically Muslim. And, on behalf of Islam – which is bigger than us all – I said what I said.”