Washington DC, 22 June 2015 - H.E. Mr. Ahmed Sareer, Ambassador of Maldives to the United States of America attended the annual Iftar dinner, which was hosted by President Barack Obama to celebrate Ramadan.
"It’s a time of spiritual renewal and a reminder of one’s duty to our fellow man -- to serve one another and lift up the less fortunate," said President Obama at the White House dinner attended by about 40 members of the diplomatic community, a few members of Congress, and prominent Muslim Americans.
He recognized several young dinner guests, including Samantha Elauf, who went to the United States Supreme Court to defend her right to wear a headscarf, or hijab. She was 17 in 2008 when she was rejected for a sales job at an Abercrombie Kids store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after wearing a hijab to the interview. "She was determined to defend the right to wear a hijab — to have the same opportunities as everybody else," President Obama said. "She went all the way to the Supreme Court — which I didn't do at her age — and she won."
