Excerpt:
Sumayyah McTaggart, a confident homeschooled eighth grader, from Great Falls, VA along with her friend Iman Hazer of Dunn-Loring, VA take civics classes at Compass Homeschooling Enrichment in Oakton, VA. Fatimah Dandashi of Falls Church, VA, a seventh grader also has classes with the same civics teacher, Leila Leoncavallo.
Assigned a class project, two weeks ago, to petition the government about an issue that they were passionate about, the three formed a petition on the White House website. Inspired by the Montgomery County Equality4Eid campaign and concerned about attending class on Eid day the three friends decided to address the issue of recognizing Eid day on the calendar.
"We knew each other from the masjid. I used to attend the masjid that Fatima currently attends. We all ended up in the same civic class and petitioned the government to recognize our holidays in public school," said McTaggart to the Muslim Link. Meeting at the public library, it took Hazer and McTaggart a few hours to put the petition together. Dandashi approached the paper for publicity to spread the word about their petition so they can collect the 100,000 signatures needed, before the January 16, 2013 deadline. Hazer is reaching out to interfaith coalitions.