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.
The incident occurred Friday during a quarterfinal playoff game against Academy at Palumbo. Thompson-King plays for the Mastery Charter North-Pickett Pumas, which is part of Philadelphia Public League’s District 12. [phillytrib.com] Read more
