Arthur Greene
A virtual hearing of the Constitutional Court on Thursday had to be shut down when attorney Yasmin Omar described a Muslim participant on the call as dressing “like a Ninja.”
Before the hearing had even begun, Omar, who is also reportedly a practising Muslim, made the Islamaphobic comment apparently unaware that she could be heard by other attendees.
According to The South African, the attorney has since admitted to making the comment but maintains that she was speaking about something unrelated.
The woman on the receiving end of the slur is counsel Nazreen Bawa SC but she has not yet come forward to confirm this.
In a clip of the incident, a woman dressed in a black hijab, a traditional item of clothing worn by Muslim women is seen in the bottom righthand corner.
The order of the day was whether the Marriage Act and Divorce Act is unconstitutional, insofar as it may “fail to recognise and regulate Muslim marriages”.
However, the session had to be paused after Omar’s outburst.
Taking to social media a user who posted the video wrote: “At the beginning of the Constitutional Court hearing, someone was accidentally unmuted and made an extremely Islamophobic comment about Muslim counsel Nazreen Bawa SC. I am absolutely shocked and disgusted.”
Video source: @TanveerJeewa
