A professional misconduct complaint has been laid with the Legal Practice Council (LPC) against an attorney who allegedly accused a senior counsel, dressed in a hijab, of ‘dressing like a ninja’ to put ‘on an act’ for the day’s proceedings at the Constitutional Court.

Nazreen Bawa was representing the Women’s Legal Centre in a case about the recognition and regulation of Muslim marriages, notes a TimesLIVE report.

Yasmin Omar was the attorney for Lajnatun Nisaa-Il Muslimaat (Association of Muslim Women of SA), which was opposing the centre’s case.

A recording of Thursday’s virtual hearing reveals a female voice saying: ‘Look at Nazreen Bawa, she’s dressed like a ninja. Did she always dress like that? She didn’t. She’s putting on an act today, can you see?’

Constitutional Court Justice Stevan Majiedt said: ‘It’s a Yasmin Omar that was speaking. Can people please mute.’

Omar declined to comment, saying since the matter was now before the LPC, it would be ‘improper’. However, she has been reported as saying she was not talking about Bawa.

‘There was something playing in the background, and I was not referring to her at all,’ she said.

Bawa reportedly said it was perhaps ‘a level of intolerance for views of Islam that don’t accord with your own’ that lay at the root of comments like Omar’s. But the Women’s Legal Centre should not have had to face criticism for acting in its clients’ interests.

In the complaint to the LPC, Sha’ista Kazee, an advocate at the Pan African Bar Association, said the statement was ‘not only a deeply personal attack on Ms Bawa’s personal beliefs but is insulting, hateful, and demeaning of Ms Bawa’s adherence to the Islamic faith’.

Full TimesLIVE report