Oklahoma girl testifies on head scarf issue

Wednesday, June 9th 2004, 10:38 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A 12-year-old Muskogee girl who was suspended from school for wearing a religious head scarf described to U.S. senators her feelings of depression and humiliation over the incident.

Nashala Hearn, a Muslim, appeared Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee, The Oklahoman reported from its Washington bureau.

She said her insistence on wearing the head scarf set off a ``battle between being obedient to God by wearing my hijab to be modest in Islam versus the school dress code policy.''

Hearn's testimony came during a hearing focused on the issue of ``hostility to religious expression in the public square.''

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, organized the hearing and said Tuesday that hostility to religion in public places is ``pervasive'' and wrong.

``The constitution nowhere requires government to expel expressions of faith from the public square,'' Cornyn said.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., a member of the subcommittee, said the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowed religious freedom to flourish.

``I do not think there is such widespread hostility,'' Feingold said. ``There may be confusion.''

In Nashala's case, Muskogee Public Schools reached an agreement last month to settle a lawsuit filed on the girl's behalf by a Virginia-based civil liberties group. The school district agreed to change its dress code to accommodate attire worn for religious reasons. The U.S. Justice Department also intervened on the side of Hearn.

Hearn was suspended twice, once for three days and once for five days, for refusing to remove her head scarf.

Hearn, a sixth-grader who was accompanied to the hearing by her father, said, ``This experience has been very stressful, very depressing and very humiliating.''