Kyrgyzstan goes French over headscarf

Starting from Tuesday girls are not allowed to wear the traditional Islamic headscarf in Kyrgyz state schools. The regulation is aimed at protecting the predominantly Muslim country’s secular status.
The new regulation prohibits the wear of any ‘cloth symbolising religious affinity’.
“We are a secular state. Children are coming under massive attack and we will protect them. When the choice is between education and a headscarf we choose education,” Education Ministry official Damira Kudaibergenova told Reuters.
Kyrgyzstan is seeing an increase in radical Islamic movements as people see their living conditions worsen.
In January, President Bakiev signed a law on religious freedom, which many human rights watchers said was restrictive. Religious organisations are now banned from inviting children or distributing religious texts in public places, reports Gazeta.ru news website.
Hijab in the world
Several countries have restrictions on wearing clothes required by Islamic norms. In Kyrgyzstan’s neighbour Uzbekistan, religious clothes are banned by the constitution.
The headscarf display is limited in governmental or public places in Morocco, Egypt and some other African countries. In Turkey the ban on the headscarf is a thorny issue. An attempt to allow the wear of the hijab led to mass demonstrations in 2008 and the subsequent annulment of the law.
In Europe the headscarf issue led to a major controversy in France in the mid-1990s, pitting supporters of religious freedom against supporters of secularism. In 2004 the country banned the wearing of religious symbols in schools and universities unless they were discreet.
Similar restrictions are in force in some states of Germany.
Headscarf ban lifted after protests
Kyrgyz Education Ministry has lifted the ban on traditional Islamic headscarves in schools after numerous protests. The ban was meant as a preventive measure against radical movements.
Propeller Kyrgyz Education Minister Abdyla Musaev explained Wednesday that its ban on the religious hijab clothes, which was imposed in February, has now been lessened to a mere recommendation, reports AKIpress news agency.
After the ban was announced, as well as mass protests, Muslim women’s rights organization Mutkalim filed a lawsuit against the ministry claiming the regulations were unconstitutional and violated several international conventions that the country had ratified.
Mutkalim also gathered some 50,000 signatures under a petition calling for abolishment of the ban and called for the resignation of the education minister.
The ban on the hijab headscarf and other religious symbols in schools and universities had been introduced on February 19. The Education Ministry said it was necessary to protect students from radical Islamic organizations seeking new recruits.
Kyrgyzstan is a predominantly Muslim country in Central Asia. The government has recently taken several measures against Islamic organizations it deemed extremist.