By AZE.US
Barring schoolgirls who wear the hijab could drive some students out of education, Azerbaijani lawyer Akram Hasanov said, arguing that parents should not automatically be blamed when an adolescent refuses to remove her headscarf.
Hasanov raised the issue in a Facebook post reported by Vesti Baku.
Responsibility for Missing School
Hasanov described a hypothetical case in which a 14-year-old girl insists on wearing the hijab while her parents urge her to remove it and attend school. If she refuses, he asked, who should be held responsible for her absence?
He cited Article 181.0.1 of Azerbaijan’s Code of Administrative Offenses, which provides penalties for depriving a child of education: 100 manats for individuals, 300 manats for officials and 5,000 manats for legal entities.
In Hasanov’s view, a parent may be at fault if the parent prevents a child from attending school. But he said the situation is different when an adolescent independently refuses to attend because she will not remove the headscarf.
He also rejected forced removal of the hijab or physical compulsion, saying such conduct could itself create legal liability.
Secularism and Personal Belief
“Secularism does not mean atheism,” Hasanov wrote, arguing that adolescents can hold religious convictions of their own.
He recalled that after the Jan. 20, 1990, Soviet crackdown in Baku, he removed his Pioneer scarf and protested against the Soviet Union at school before he turned 13, despite pressure from teachers and his parents.
Hasanov warned that excluding girls who hold religious beliefs could alienate them from the state and deprive them of an education. He also linked the issue to wider debates about family values and demographic concerns.
The central question, he said, is how to keep a student in education when a school requires her to remove the hijab but she refuses to do so.