“This question was raised a year ago, and the authorities ruled that hijabs should be allowed. Now the schools started discussing this topic again,' Aibek Ashirbayev, whose daughter attends a public school in Otuz Adir village in Kara-Suu region, told ‘Silk Road’ on Monday.
'It worries me and many others. We live in a country where 80% of the citizens are Muslims, so why not let Muslim girls wear hijabs?”
Ashirbayev was voicing Muslims' worries after a Kara-Suu school officially banned wearing the Islamic headscarf in classes.
Imposing the ban, Aizhamal Kalenova, Head of the Education Department in Kara-Suu region, said: “As of the new academic year 2015/2016 all schoolchildren across Kyrgyzstan will be wearing the same uniform, and we should be preparing the children for this process already.”
Kalenova claims that the ban came in response to complaints by dozens of parents against donning hijab in schools.
“Because the influence of the religious population in our region is quite high, until now this problem hasn’t been raised, but we were asked to not allow girls attend school in hijabs anymore,” Kulanova says.
Muslims make up 75 percent of Kyrgyzstan's 5-million population.
The right to religious freedom has recently come under attack in Kyrgyzstan, according to domestic and international rights activists.
In 2009, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed a law banning proselytism, private religious education and the import or dissemination of religious literature. The law also requires all religious communities to register with the state.
Voicing opposition against the hijab ban, Kyrgyz Muslim leaders warned that it 'will be a discriminatory measure'.
'Nobody is against the uniform, but what does the hijab have to do with it,” Otuz Adir village imam Abdumanap Omurzakov wondered.
On the other hand, supporters of the ban believe that it will curb discrimination against underprivileged students and promote 'equality'.
“We will not let the students wear not only hijabs, but also jewelry, expensive clothes, etc,' Osh public school math teacher Uulkan Zhanbolotova claimed.
'This way, children from families with different incomes will not feel discriminated.”
Defending students' religious right to wear the veil, pro-hijab parents have started collecting signatures to reverse the ban.
Moreover, concerned parents plan to take the issue to the parliament.
Hijab dispute is not new in the impoverished mountainous country. Every year with the start of the school year, several Muslim girls face exclusion from state schools for wearing hijab.
Schools' officials have been citing guidelines instructing them to interpret and enforce the school dress code more strictly.
Many Muslim students in Kyrgyzstan were banned from attending classes in 2011 and 2012 over their headscarf.
Many students were either forced to remove their headscarf or sent home if they refused to take it off.
In 2009, education official declared that schoolgirls will no longer be allowed to wear hijab.
The decision was blasted by rights advocates as running against the very principles of religious freedom.
SM/1664
Tehran, April 30, IRNA – A decision by a Kyrgyz region to ban hijab in schools has sparked concerns among Muslims, amid reports that the ban may be applied across the country by next autumn.
