 |
|
Sunni Muslims make up around 98 percent of Tajikistan's 6.6 million-strong population.
|
DUSHANBE,
October 20, 2005 (IslamONline.net & News Agencies) – The Central
Asian former Soviet republic of Tajikistan has decided to ban hijab in
schools and universities.
"This
headwear represents a religious ideology and is in contravention of
education law," Education Minister Abduzhabor Rakhmonov was
quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He
claimed that hijab serves to "propagate an ideology"
Islam
sees hijab as an
obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying
one’s affiliations – unlike the symbolic Christian crucifixes.
Sunni
Muslims make up around 98 percent of Tajikistan's 6.6 million-strong
population.
Spreading
Rakhmonov
noted that more Muslim girls and women were wearing hijab.
"Islamic
headscarves of which there were only isolated cases a short while ago
have now greatly spread," he said.
"For
those who wish to wear headscarves there are madrasas (Islamic
religious schools) and Qur'anic schools," said the official.
He
warned that students disobeying the new rules risked expulsion from
their institutions.
The
issue of hijab has taken central stage in many world countries,
particularly in the West, since France adopted
a bill banning it in state-run schools and public
institutions in March 2004.
Shortly
afterwards, other European countries, chiefly Germany, followed the
French lead.
The
French ban, described by international rights watchdogs as amounting
to religious discrimination, prompted demonstrations across Europe.
