Nasihah Thompson-King chose to stand up for her religious beliefs by taking a seat.
The 16-year-old student from Mastery Charter School Shoemaker Campus was confronted with an unfamiliar dilemma last week by a referee officiating her high school basketball game: Remove the hijab she wears as part of her Islamic faith and take the court, or be prevented from playing.
She refused to take off the hijab and stayed on the bench.
“My hijab is part of me, and I feel like I was going to take off a part of me to play in the game,” said the high school sophomore as she sat beside her mother, Fatima Thompson, inside their Overbrook home on Monday.