![\"idil](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GSBR0806-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCanada is a mosaic of so many cultures and traditions. For a Black Muslim woman and law graduate in Montreal, there are many challenges. Idil Issa is sharing her journey amid Ramadan and International Women\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Idil Issa at her graduation from McGill law (Submitted by: Idil Issa)<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of always view Black History Month and Women\u2019s Day as a continuation. I always view it as one leading into the other. You kind of, there\u2019s special focus on the history of Black people in February and there\u2019s special focus on the history of women in March. And Ramadan is very much a time for reflection,\u201d said Idil Issa, Montreal law graduate and community activist.<\/p>\n
Born in Winnipeg, Issa attended high school in Toronto, following which she lived in Qatar, Malaysia, and South Africa as a communications specialist.<\/p>\n
She returned to Montreal in 2016 and recently graduated from McGill Law School. She ran for the NDP in the 2025 Federal elections and municipally for Movement Montr\u00e9al in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo up until now, my focus really has been on the well-being of Muslim women in Quebec. So that\u2019s my primary loyalty, I guess you could say. But then as a Black Muslim woman, that adds another layer,\u201d said Issa.<\/p>\n
As a Black Muslim woman, Issa is concerned about laws passed by the Legault government. Bill 21 prohibits public servants in positions of authority from wearing visible religious symbols while on the job.<\/p>\n
Bill 94 was adopted to strengthen Bill 21 and extend the ban to\u00a0all\u00a0staff in public schools, including support staff, lunch monitors, and volunteers. It also prohibits school employees and students from having their faces covered.<\/p>\n
Bill 9 further expands secularism, prohibiting religious symbols for workers in\u00a0subsidized daycares\u00a0and\u00a0private schools.<\/p>\n
It also seeks to ban prayer rooms in public schools, restrict religious-based menus, and ban public, non-authorized prayer in public spaces<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore Bill 21, were many people familiar with the notwithstanding laws? It was a very seldom used provision within our constitution, very rarely used. But it\u2019s something that lawyers would be familiar with, constitutional lawyers. I do feel that there are minorities being targeted by these successive laws. And I do feel there is a political element to it. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s just to resolve a problem within society,\u201d said Issa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think these laws are being used as political capital to help win elections. I think it\u2019s psychological warfare because the successive nature of each of these bills and how it\u2019s kind of chasing women out of the workforce has a psychological effect on Muslim women in Quebec. It has a knock-on effect in the private sector as well. It chills the work environment, the employment market for Muslim women. So I think beyond the concrete job losses, it also has a psychological effect on Muslim women in Quebec in that it\u2019s telling them you\u2019re not welcome here. And this lack of welcome is state-sanctioned.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"idil](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/JRJM0108-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A young Idil Issa with her mom (Submitted by: Idil Issa)<\/p>\n
Issa credits her mom with helping shape her into the woman she is today.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother is somebody who taught me about justice, doing the right thing even when it\u2019s not convenient. She fought legal battles when she was very young in the defense of justice for personal matters that she, as a young woman, felt she needed to sort out through legal channels. And so she\u2019s a fighter and she kind of imparted that to me,\u201d Issa explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, Quebec is richer for it. I think it\u2019s better if we embrace different cultures and we try to understand the perspectives of different cultures; we don\u2019t kind of stereotype them and reduce them to stereotypes. Yeah, because the alternative is relying on stereotypes, those stereotypes being wrong, and us losing talent that we really need. We need more teachers. We need more daycare workers. We need we need manpower. So I think relying on stereotypes is really hurting us in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada is a mosaic of so many cultures and traditions. For a Black Muslim woman and law graduate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-515142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}