TAJIK MINISTRY OF EDUCATION BANS HIJABS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

UNCLAS DUSHANBE 001708

SIPDIS


STATE FOR EUR/CACEN, SA, DRL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KISL KIRF TI
SUBJECT: TAJIK MINISTRY OF EDUCATION BANS HIJABS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS



1. Deputy Minister of Education Farkhod Rakhimov announced on
October 19 that hijabs (Muslim head-coverings) are banned in
schools and institutions of higher education. Education
officials were instructed to disseminate this message throughout
their schools. Students who violate this edict will face
disciplinary consequences, even possible expulsion. Rakhimov,
who heads the commission that promulgated this edict, reasons,
"The hijab [represents] a form of religious ideology which
contradicts the Law on Education and the Consitution."


2. Rakhimov told Embassy Political Assistant that the
Government feels obliged to take preventive measures to curb
students from wearing the hijab throughout Tajikistan in order
to uphold secular education. He is convinced that students and
their families are being coerced into wearing the hijab and
offered cases in the Sughd region and Dushanbe as proof. In
these cases, the students and their parents showed little
evidence of being devoutly Muslim, but chose to wear a hijab.
Therefore, the commission concluded, someone else encouraged
them wear the hijab, perhaps to make a political statement.


3. Opposition figures and political and religious leaders have
expressed disappointment and legal concerns about the law.
Muhiddin Kabiri, First Deputy Chairman of the Islamic Revival
Party of Tajikistan (IRPT),appealed directly to the Minister of
Education. Post believes the majority of the country, up to
this point, has been indifferent to the hijab's place in
schools. Domullo Naim, a leading Islamic Scholar of the region,
fears the law will incite a greater rift between the government
and observant Muslims, laying the groundwork for religious
extremism.


4. COMMENT: The government seems to believe it can prevent
the growth of extremism by regulating external symbols - a
dubious proposition. It remains to be clarified whether this
new edict apples only to full hijab or also includes
headscarves, which are more a sign of traditional conservatism
than extremism. In any case, as unwise as this edict may be, it
is little different from similar controversial regulations in
France and Turkey. END COMMENT.

HOAGLAND


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