Among the number of emails I’ve received today, some have praised today’s strip with the little girl in the hijab for reflecting “the diversity that is America.” – others have hated it saying “It was wrong and wholly inappropriate!”
I’d like to state, as the artist on Sally Forth, I currently live in an area that is home to a large number of Somali Americans that have been here for generations and wear the traditional hijab. My drawing is just an everyday classroom scene in my neck of the woods.
For those who were offended that it ran the day after 9/11 I’d also like to add that I lived in New York when the attacks happened and watched the towers go down from across the bay. I abhor the terrorists for what they did. They killed close to 3,000 people that day of ALL faiths and religions.
To strike back against that kind of evil I’m reminded of the words of Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, who survived a bullet to the head by a Taliban gunman for being an advocate for a girls’ right to go to school. Her message is that the key in fighting global terrorism is education. So maybe the image of a little Somali American girl in a classroom getting an education is exactly what we need to see MORE of, not less.
And that’s my two cents…
-Jim Keefe
