The experience of being asked to leave the operating theatre (OT), at the Queens Medical Centre, in the United Kingdom (UK) due to wearing a headscarf that did not fit according to standard procedures, became a starting point for 28-year-old Dr Farah Shaheera Roslan, to create history in solving doctors’ problems Muslim women wearing hijab.
The incident when Roslan was in her first year of training at the medical center in 2018 continues to remain in her memory.
In 2019, Farah Roslan, who hails from Malaysia and lives in Lincolnshire, introduced the idea of a disposable, sterile headscarf in the Royal Derby Hospital, where she was a medical student, after having to leave the operating theatre multiple times due to infection control.
The hospital provided a “sterile, one-time headscarf” suitable for hijabi female doctors inside operating rooms.
In December 2019, Royal Derby Hospital published a tweet, stating that the credit for this idea belongs to the young doctor, Farah Roslan, who developed the idea during her training in the hospital.
Hospital officials believe that this is the first time in the United Kingdom that a suitable headscarf has been introduced for operating rooms.
Through her Twitter account, Farah Roslan expressed her hope that this form of headscarf would contribute to removing one of the main obstacles that stand in the way of attracting more talents to the field of surgery.
“I’ve been wearing the same headscarf all day, which is definitely not ideal in terms of hygiene,” she said. “I did not feel comfortable taking it off (the veil), and I was respectfully removed from the operating rooms because of fears of infection transmission,” she added.
Roslan had to search for a middle ground between wearing her legal dress in accordance with the requirements of her religious belief, and the passion of her presence in the operating room.
However, Dr Farah Shaheera who currently works as a surgeon trainee at Northampton General Hospital, UK.
