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Azeri Universities Threaten to Expel Female Students with Headscarves
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The
university wants the students “dressed in a way that is
appropriate for institutes of higher education,” said
Gusseinzade.
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BAKU,
May 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Dozens of female students
in the secular Muslim state of Azerbaijan say they could be forced to
give up their studies after university chiefs barred them from wearing
headscarves, an attribute of their Islamic faith, on campus.
The
row highlights a long-standing tension in Azerbaijan where the
government is accused of trampling on religious freedoms.
"I
am being forced to choose between my education and my religious
beliefs," said Nurana Zeinalova, a student at the pedagogical
institute in the Azeri capital, Baku, who told Agence France-Presse
(AFP) she was given an ultimatum to take off her headscarf.
Female
students at three schools in Baku, the medical institute, the
pedagogical institute and Baku State University, say that their
lecturers have ordered them to remove the scarves.
"We
were having roll-call and when they got to my name they said I could
not stay in class in a headscarf," said another student, Saida
Samubar.
"I
asked what law says I cannot wear a headscarf and [the teacher] said
it was in the regulations of our institute. After that, they asked me
to leave the class," she added.
Other
students said they were called in for private interviews with
university rectors where they were asked to explain why they wore the
headscarf and advised to take it off in class.
"They
say it is not a demand but a request, but the request is in a very
strong form," said Gyulzar Shadlinskaya, a Muslim activist and
teacher at the pedagogical institute.
The
Qura’an, Islam’s holy book, stipulates that women should not be
seen in public with their hair or their bodies exposed. It is a part
of a Muslim woman’s faith to dress as ordained by God.
The
students' case has been picked up by the Religious Freedom Defense
Center, a local non-governmental organization, which said it will take
the issue to court and to the European Court of Human Rights, if
necessary, AFP reported.
Ilgar
Ibrahimoglu, the center’s coordinator, warned that the authorities
were suppressing religious freedom in Azerbaijan.
"This
is a violation of religious freedoms and a violation of the right of
citizens to dress the way they want," Ibrahimoglu told AFP.
"They say they can do this because Azerbaijan is a secular state,
but some people seem to want to be more secular than Britain, France
or Germany."
However,
Azerbaijan's education ministry defended the ban on headscarves in
university classrooms.
"Under
no circumstances should this question be linked to religion or to a
violation of human rights," said Bayram Gusseinzade, head of the
ministry's department of public affairs.
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"I
am being forced to choose between my education and my religious
beliefs," one student said.
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"It
is just a desire on the part of university chiefs to see their
students dressed in a way that is appropriate for institutes of higher
education," he said. "In the same way, a lecturer can ask a
scruffy, unshaven male student to come to lectures clean-shaven. Lots
of companies also set rules on appearance for their staff, for example
not to wear mini-skirts."
"No
one is forcing female students to walk around on the streets, at home
or wherever with an uncovered head... We are only talking about an
institute, which has its own rules."
The
eight million population in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet state, are
predominantly Muslims.
The
government is frequently accused of violating religious freedoms in
its desire to shore up the country's secular principles.
The
authorities have refused to issue passports and identity cards to
women who are photographed for the documents with their head covered,
forcing those women and other human rights groups to pursue the
government through courts.
A
lot of the problems facing Muslims in Azerbaijan mirror those in
neighborly Turkey, where the authorities have also been trampling on
religious freedoms.
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