Muslim children’s detention drew far less concern than a girl’s sports hijab

Evidence

If eleven-year-old girls wearing the hijab haunt our imaginations and provoke an anxious expulsion, other eleven year olds held in detention camps merit less attention. Around the same time that Asmahan Mansour was being ordered off the soccer field, giving rise to a mad scramble among officials for their laws and regulation books, another Canadian Muslim child, detained with his Iranian parents at a Texas detention centre for illegal immigrants, a place activists describe as a dismal prison unsuitable for children, occasioned much less interest. Had there been such a scramble in the case of this child, it is possible that no law would be found to secure his release. Instead, anyone wishing to protest this child’s and his parents’ detention would run headlong into the exception – the placing of immigrants and refugees beyond the reach of the law. While the family’s Canadian lawyer ultimately succeeded in securing their release to Canadian authorities, U.S. authorities are acting within the law in holding an eleven year old in the detention facility. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 405