Iowa City Adds Muslim Holidays to School Calendar

Muslim students in Iowa will finally have a chance to celebrate Eid Al-Fitr normally after the city school board agreed to recognize the Islamic holiday on the school calendar. The decision, which will be applied starting from the next school year 2022, came after student Reem Kirja spent three years advocating for it, The Gazette reported. Writing a letter to the superintendent, Reem, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Northwest Junior High, started a petition on change.org to raise awareness and support for Muslim students. “Imagine waking up Christmas morning, running downstairs, opening presents, and then grabbing your backpack and heading to school,” Reem wrote in the petition which received more than 5000 signatories. “It’s surprising how many people don’t know aboutEid even though Islam is the second-largest religious group in the world,” Reem said.
The Islamic Hijri Calendar is a lunar one, thus the observance of `Eid Al-Fitr revolves throughout the seasons.
A growing number of American school districts have begun to recognize the Muslim holidays.