Female US Soldier: I Was Harrassed Over Muslim Name

Naida Christian Nova, Naida Hosan

Naida Hosan is not a Muslim – she’s a Catholic. But her name sounded Islamic to fellow US soldiers in Iraq, who found it as something to taunt her for. They would call her “Sergeant Hussein” and ask what God she prayed to, the Sergeant 1st Class said.

She was going to have to live with it on her second war tour, so she thought it best to change her name before deploying to Afghanistan last year. She legally changed her name to Naida Christian Nova.

Sadly, things got worse. Nova complained to her superiors about constant anti-Muslim slurs and jokes. She says they responded with a series of reprisals intended to drive her out of the army, leading her to consider suicide.

“My complaints fell on deaf ears every time,” said Nova, 41, a member of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, NC. “Any time I would say something about it I was treated like I didn’t know what I was talking about or that I’m an idiot or that I was a Muslim sympathiser. It was just a very lonely feeling.”

Nova was however determined to remain in the service for at least eight years, until she is eligible for retirement, she recently re-enlisted.

Although Fort Bragg spokeswoman Sheri L Crowe said the Army would not comment on the case, questions on which she referred to the US Department of Justice, and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, assigned to defend the army, also declined to comment, Nova’s account is supported by an affidavit filed by an old friend, Sharon Deborah Sheetz, who said that Nova had confided in her about the harassment she had suffered, telling Sheetz that she was so unhappy that she no longer wanted to live.

Nova’s father, Roy Hosein, was born into a Muslim family on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, where his parents had emigrated from India. He converted to Christianity after meeting Nova’s mother, a Catholic from the Philippines, and became a US citizen shortly after his daughter was born in New York. He changed the spelling of his family name to Hosan in the hope his children would avoid discrimination.

“He Americanised it,” his daughter explained. “He got Hosan from Hosanna. He kept hearing it in church.”

Nova reported for basic training two months after the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

“Before 9/11, my last name never raised an eyebrow,” she said. “But after 9-11, I felt compelled to tell people I am a Christian and felt I had to prove I was loyal to the United States.”

Her first deployment was to Iraq in 2005. She said other soldiers, including her supervisors, mocked her family name and made crude jokes.

“I was called Sergent Hussein, as in Saddam Hussein,” she said. “Even when I would correct them on the pronunciation of my name, I was still called Sergeant Hussein. I was asked what God I pray to. And there were a lot of references to hajjis, used as a derogatory term.”

A former US Air Force officer who founded Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Mikey Weinstein said Nova’s experience is not uncommon. Military personnel who are Muslim or perceived to be of Middle Eastern descent are often targets for discrimination, he said.

“When a Muslim soldier, sailor or airman stands up for themselves, they are the subject of vicious reprisal and retribution,” said Weinstein, who is Jewish. “What (Sgt. Nova) has gone through is horrible, but it is typical.”

After several bad experiences and disengagement from jobs, Nova, with the help of a Fayetteville lawyer, Mark Waple, filed a formal complaint with the Army’s Inspector General in October seeking a voluntary discharge due to being subjected to “adverse treatment and negative, prejudicial remarks concerning the Muslim faith.”

Nova said she grew so depressed that she considered suicide. She checked herself into an on-base hospital for treatment, staying for about a week before returning to duty.

Nova re-enlisted in the Army on April 8 after a near-trial–that contained a lot of discrediting claims from the army–where the army finally retreated. She recently married, and is preparing to ship out next month to attend a senior leadership course and then report to a new assignment in Germany.

“I want to put all this behind me. I want to move on to my next duty assignment,” said Nova. “My beliefs aren’t any different from what the army states as its beliefs and values. I would like to be treated fairly.”