Hijab-Wearing Students Dismissed From Tajik University

Two students have been dismissed from Tajik State University in Dushanbe because they violated the hijab ban at schools, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports.

Student Gulnora Bobonazarova told RFE/RL that the university administration did not let her take an exam and said that because she wore a hijab -- the Islamic head scarf -- she is no longer a student at the school.

The controversy over wearing a hijab at Tajik universities began two years ago when the education minister went to universities himself and sent home any women he found wearing hijabs.

In 2007, a student, Davlatmoh Ismoilova, did not accept the order against the hijabs and filed a court case against the ban. She lost her case and did not return to school.

Education Ministry official Jaloliddin Amirov told RFE/RL that the hijab ban is in force and whomever violates it runs the risk of being dismissed from university.