AZERBAIJAN: Muslim girls challenge the state over Hijab
- From: "Muslim News" <editor_@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <submit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 04:18:19 +0100
A few hundred devout Muslim women are fighting the Azerbaijani state for
the right to wear headscarves
The latest chapter in the row over religious identity erupted in
Azerbaijan's state medical university on May 2, when Musa Alekperov, a
teacher of social hygiene, noticed that one of his students was wearing
a headscarf and gave her an ultimatum - either get rid of it or leave
the lecture-hall.
Senuber Saidi, who covers her head out of religious conviction, chose
the second option. Then she turned to the Centre for the Defence of
Freedom of Conscience and Religious Toleration, known in Azeri as
DEVAMM.
According to the head of the centre, Ilgar Ibragimoglu, students from
the city's pedagogical university and the financial college had recently
appealed to him with similar complaints, claiming that teachers had
advised them to come "dressed like the others".
Over the last month, the rights of observant Islamic girls and
Azerbaijan's aspiration to be a secular state have clashed in dramatic
form, provoking a row on a national scale. Azerbaijan is following the
model of its Turkic cousin, Turkey, and cracking down on any
manifestation of radical Islam.
Devout Muslim women have insisted on their rights to wear shawls in
Azerbaijan for more than three years now. The problem first occurred
when the interior minister began issuing new Azerbaijani passports in
1998 and demanded that women be photographed with their heads uncovered.
Holders of the passports were to be photographed "without headwear",
which officials took to include shawls. In spite of several legal
challenges in favour of the women's rights, Azerbaijan's supreme court
ruled in favour of the government.
Around 200 women refused to agree to this and asked for political asylum
from the United Nations and western embassies. According to Ibrahimoglu,
this number is growing and it is possible that thousands of women will
reject their Azerbaijani citizenship as a result.
For its part, the government has stepped up its campaign against Islamic
students. On May 3, a conference on the theme of "Women and Islam" was
held in Baku state university at which a string of speakers called for
women to come to lectures with their heads uncovered. The women
themselves were not allowed to speak.
Rafik Aliev, the head of the state committee on religion, told the
conference, "We are talking about the attributes of a secular state,
which are accepted by the whole world."
On May 28, the education minister, Misir Mardanov, struck a more
conciliatory note on state television saying, "No one is preventing the
girls from coming to classes with covered heads. It's not right to
remove their scarves by force or to force them to come to lectures."
Mardanov said that his ministry was "studying" the problem.
However, one teacher at the pedagogical university, Gulnara
Shadlinskaya, told IWPR that, despite these emollient words, she
believed there was a secret agreement between the ministry and the
universities to pursue an "anti-religious campaign".
The human rights activists from DEVAMM said that when they came to talk
to the university authorities they were treated with hostility. "Only
after that did we get to talk to Musa Alekperov," said Seimur Rashidov,
one of the activists.
"In conversation with us he renounced his words. It seemed that he had
absolutely no problem with Senuber Saidi coming with a covered head. He
had only one condition that a student in the medical institute should
wear a white cap, which Saidi had not objected to."
However, Islamic girls studying in the medical university were told they
would not be allowed into class after May 10 wearing shawls. DEVAMM
activists who accompanied the students into their lessons on that day
said they encountered no opposition - but the following day the girls
experienced more of the same trouble.
According to Shadlinskaya, the university authorities compile a list of
students who wear headscarves. Each one is then invited to a
confidential conversation where she is strongly advised to "come dressed
like the others". If that does not work, they are given a deadline to
get rid of their shawls. The students are currently sitting exams and
many fear they will be unable to concentrate properly if such
disruptions continue.
The university conflict may soon be put in the shade by a possible clash
over national identity cards that are being introduced in Azerbaijan
later this year.
Young women who are leaving secondary schools or colleges and do not
want to be photographed bareheaded for religious reasons will not be
issued with the IDs. This would stop them going into higher education
and leave them extremely vulnerable in society at large.
It would seem that there is more work on the horizon for DEVAMM and
Ibrahimoglu, who predicts, "This is a calm before the storm."
Source: NewsService
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