NEW JERSEY: Nadia Kahf, the attorney born in Syria, made history when she became the first Superior Court judge in the United States to wear a hijab.
Local media reported that Nadia was nominated by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy the previous year. Community leaders, including mayors, council members, school board members, and leaders of the New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association, signed the letter in May calling on Senator Kristin Corrado to advance the nomination. More than 700 citizens signed the online petition in support of her nomination, Arab News reported.
Third Muslim woman to serve in court
Nadia Kahf, the third Muslim woman to serve in the Superior Court, took the oath during her swearing-in ceremony the previous week with her hand on a copy of the Holy Qur’an she inherited from her grandmother.
“I’m proud to represent the Muslim and Arab communities in New Jersey in the United States,” she said during the ceremony. “I want the younger generation to see they can practice their religion without fear that they can be who they are. Diversity is our strength, and it is not our weakness.”
As a lawyer, Nadia Kahf specialised in family law and handled immigration cases. In 2003, she was on the board of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim civil rights organization.
The day after Nadia’s swearing-in commemoration, another woman who wears the Islamic headscarf, family law attorney Dalya Youssef, was sworn in as a Superior Court judge, this time in Somerset County, New Jersey.
