Hafsah Abdur-Rahman Muslim girl denied high school graduation diploma from Philadelphia High School for girls after dancing across stage to collect diploma.
What if she was a white girl? Disconcert has come to the fore after a graduating female student at a Philadelphia area high school, dressed in Muslim garbs was denied her diploma by the school’s principal after she danced across the stage during the school’s commencement ceremony last week.
Hafsah Abdur-Rahman, 17, seemingly over joyed about graduating, was captured dancing with a bouquet in hand as she made her way to collect her diploma in front of her family and friends, receiving a light chuckle from the crowd.
When the teen reached out to claim her diploma, Principal Lisa Mesi seemingly waved her away, not allowing the teen to walk off with the degree.
This young woman, Hafsah Abdur-Rahman, was denied her high school diploma for dancing on stage. Philadelphia High School for Girls should be ashamed of themselves. They humiliated this young woman. For NOTHING. pic.twitter.com/x60EaIgEmI
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) June 16, 2023
‘I understood the rules!’
‘She stole that moment from me,’ Abdur-Rahman told ABC 6. ‘I will never get that again.’
‘I was so embarrassed. I couldn’t even enjoy the rest of the graduation.’
Mesi had warned families of her students prior to the ceremony that cheering and clapping while their loved ones walked across the stage was forbidden at the graduation.
The teen said Mesi told her she could not receive her diploma due to the audience laughing.
‘I understood the rules because I was saying ‘shh’ in the video. Do not say nothing because I want my diploma. I knew and understood what we were supposed to do,’ Abdur-Rahman told the outlet.
A graduate from The Philadelphia High School for Girls was denied her diploma after dancing across the stage and making the crowd laugh
The school district said it “does not condone the withholding of earned diplomas based on family members cheering”https://t.co/vPhu5F5Gsw pic.twitter.com/tiHAsL8SDN
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) June 16, 2023
Cultural polarization?
Abdur-Rahman and her family believe she was targeted since other girls blew kisses and waved as they walked the stage, they told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Abdur-Rahman’s family said they remained quiet as she strutted across the stage, not wanting anything to tamper with her special moment, claiming she was being penalized for others’ reactions in the crowd.
‘With the climate in the city of Philadelphia, these kids have lost so much,’ Renee Haniyah Reid, Abdul-Rahman’s grandmother, told the outlet. ‘The dynamics have changed. And my granddaughter wants to be an entrepreneur; if she’s not going to college, this was her last walk. They told me, ‘Oh, well, she’ll get over it.’’
The teen told the outlet that the assistant principal had instructed students to walk to get their degree with style to collect their degree.
‘If they thought that I shouldn’t do ‘The Griddy’ across the stage and do the Girls’ High traditions, nobody should have been able to wave or blow kisses or do period signs because I feel like that’s the same thing. I feel like that’s unfair,’ the teen told ABC 6.
What if she wasn’t Muslim?
The teen said three other girls were not given their diplomas during the ceremony due to cheers and murmuring from audience members.
All three girls were handed their degrees after the ceremony.
The Philadelphia High School for Girls is a college preparatory school that was founded in 1848.
‘The District does not condone the withholding of earned diplomas based on family members cheering for their graduates. We apologize to all the families and graduates who were impacted and are further looking into this matter to avoid it happening in the future,’ the school said in a released statement.
The assistant superintendent of the school contacted Abdur-Rahman following the ceremony to apologize to her and her mother for the principal ruining what was meant to be a cherished day in the young teen’s life.
