The Ovambanderu and Ovaherero women in the North West have expressed displeasure at the manner in which the Department of Immigration and Citizenship is forcing married women to remove their headgear when posing for pictures to renew their passport and National Identity Cards. Scores of Herero women in Maun were shocked at the Immigration offices when they were told to remove their headgear to take pictures. The headgear called Otjikaiva is part of the Herero traditional dress and is built to represent the horns of the cattle, which are so important to the Herero communities. They argue that the government is trying to strip them of their long standing tradition and posing for pictures without the scarf has never happened to a Herero woman. A married Herero lady from Bodibeng said she was surprised to be told to remove her headgear when renewing her Identity card that has expired. “I was told to remove my headgear and I was not happy at all because grown women like me do not remove the headgear in public,” she decried, adding that this has never happened as Herero women are not allowed to remove headgear in public. “We have never removed our headgear…