On June 30, the Islamic Medical Association of the Philippines (IMAP) started distributing a Department of Health memorandum which states that female workers "should be allowed to use their veil (hijab) and wear their prescribed mode of dressing inside the premises of all healthcare institutions." "In special areas where sterility must be maintained, veils must be treated equal to the hair," the document states. "They must be freshly laundered, covered by a surgical cap or worn neatly and changed when going out of the assigned area."
IMAP board secretary Doctor Naheeda Dimacisil told UCA News that Health Secretary Francisco Duque signed the memorandum on April 29 in response to the association's appeal for the protection of the rights of Muslim workers, students and trainees in hospitals. She said students reported restrictions in one hospital in Pasig City. Dimacisil noted that in her six years of medical practice in Metro Manila, wearing the hijab (veil) "has never been a problem for me or other Muslim women doctors." Even if not all Philippine Muslim women wear veils, she is "happy" that the Department of Health has given them the option to do so. Modesty as expressed in properly covering one's self is an Islamic value, she said.
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