A city high school student is hoping to persuade the Board of Education to adopt two of the most sacred Muslim holy days as public school holidays, a request that school officials have rebuffed twice in recent years, but that has gained traction throughout North Jersey and beyond.
Unlike in previous attempts, Kaity Assaf, 17, a senior at the high school, has made her own campaign out of the issue and has attracted a legion of supporters. She showed up to a board meeting earlier this month to make her case, supported by petitions bearing 500 signatures of classmates and dozens more from teachers and family members.
In a Christmas Eve interview on Thursday, Assaf said the holy days, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, deserve the same recognition as major Christian and Jewish holidays, so that Muslim students don’t have to worry about missing tests or make-up assignments and Muslim teachers and staff don’t have to end up working instead of celebrating.
Assaf quoted New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who added the two holy days to the public school calendar this year, saying it’s “just a matter of fairness, it’s as simple as that.”
“We should take that day off completely, as we also take a week off for Christmas,” she said. “We respect their holidays. Everyone should respect our holiday and take our day off as well.”
Eid al-Fitr, the first of the two holy days, marks the end of Ramadan – a sacred month of fasting - with a giant feast, gatherings of friends and family and gift-giving. Eid al-Adha, also called “Festival of the Sacrifice,” honors the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son and is also celebrated with food, gifts for children and acts to help the poor.
The holy days fall on different days each year, in accordance with the lunar calendar, and sometimes are on weekends or in the summer, as Eid al-Fitr was this year and will be in 2016.
Clifton board members have opposed adding the holy days to the school calendar dating back to 2010, when Eid al-Fitr coincided with Rosh Hashanah, a traditional school holiday in the city, and some Muslims mistakenly thought Eid was a new day off. The board also turned down a request by a geometry teacher, Rafat Ewais, in 2013, who has served as an adviser to Assaf.
Trustee Jim Daley has said adding the Eid holidays to the calendar might compel the district to add other holidays, and that the board couldn’t grant the requests for all of the city’s “ethnic” groups. A similar concern was expressed by trustee Michael Evans this month after Assaf went to the mic. But, he said, “I believe absolutely holidays in each and every culture should be recognized in our calendar.”
Superintendent Richard Tardalo said this week that he and the board members listened to Assaf and would take her request into consideration when crafting the 2016-2017 school calendar at the end of February.
“We’ll definitely take a look at it,” he said, adding that he thought in light of recent backlash against Muslims that Assaf was “very courageous and came forward in a very forthright way.”
Trustee Lucy Danny, a teacher in Paramus, suggested that at a minimum, teachers be advised not to assign major projects or tests on the holy days, which are currently excused absences for students in Clifton.
Assaf, whose family moved from Paterson to Clifton two years ago, said she took up the cause as a way to voice the interests of the city’s Muslim community. She researched the holiday proposal and found that it has been adopted in Paterson, Trenton, Atlantic City, Cliffside Park and Prospect Park. And she decided to print off petitions to collect supporters, starting with her estimated 400 Muslim classmates at the 2,600-student high school.
“Everyone wants Eid to be a public holiday, but no one had the courage to come forward,” she said. “You won’t lose anything if you try.”
Her mother, Haya, said she was encouraged by the response.
“Everyone wanted to help her – the teachers, the students,” she said. “Everyone wanted to stand behind her.”
Assaf countered the argument that other ethnic groups would come to the board with similar requests, saying Islam is not a group but is the world’s second-largest religion. And ruling out tests and big assignments, while it would be nice, doesn’t go far enough, she said.
Over the next few months, she said she plans to continue to gain support and become a frequent presence at board meetings.
“I’m looking into being a lawyer and maybe a future judge some day,” Assaf said. “Even at a young age, I should stand up for what’s right.”