By AZE.US Editorial Team
When adults turn a school headscarf into a banner of confrontation, children pay the price. Behind loud declarations about religious freedom, the central question too often disappears: Where is the girl’s own freedom?
On October 12, Azerbaijan’s Interior Ministry said 37 people had been arrested over public-order violations linked to enforcement of the country’s unified school-uniform rules.
According to the ministry, participants created confrontations with education workers, damaged state schools and tried to disrupt traffic and the normal operation of educational institutions. A criminal case was opened under Article 233 of the Criminal Code, APA reported. Those accusations must be assessed by a court, but the situation already demands a direct discussion about the limits of parental power and the safety of schools.
That same day, a car belonging to a school principal was set on fire in Baku’s Garadagh district. Police later said they had arrested a previously convicted man, Fuad Ibrahimov, over the attack, according to an October 13 update from APA. Investigators must establish the motive, but no dispute over school clothing can justify intimidating educators.
Anyone who tries to win recognition for a position through threats destroys their own argument about freedom. A teacher should not have to work under fear of attack. A child should not have to walk to class through a crowd of enraged adults.
Schools Do Not Have to Submit to a Family’s Religious Demands
Azerbaijan’s Constitution separates religion from the state and declares the state education system secular. It also protects freedom of conscience and the right to education. Any restriction needs a clear legal basis, but a secular school is not, by itself, an insult to believers.
Our editorial position is unambiguous: State schools should maintain common secular rules, and religious clothing should not become a tool for pressuring them.
Supporters of hijab in schools must answer an uncomfortable question:
Are they defending a student’s independent decision, or the right of adults to decide in advance how she will look, what she will believe and what kind of life she will lead?
Claims about an “informed choice” are especially unconvincing when they concern a young girl who is entirely dependent on her family. She is still learning how to understand the world. If removing the headscarf exposes her to punishment, shame or accusations of disobedience, it is dishonest to call the decision free.
Parents have the right to pass their beliefs to their children. But raising a child does not confer the right to turn a daughter into a display of family religiosity. She must retain room for questions, doubts and a future of her own.
The Lesson of Nardaran
Nardaran’s history shows how dangerous a conflict can become when religious authority is placed above nationwide law.
The critical escalation came in November 2015, when a police operation and armed confrontation left six people dead - four local residents and two police officers - and injured others. Authorities said they were acting against an armed group operating under religious cover, while local residents and critics disputed parts of the official account. The competing claims and deaths were documented at the time by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
That painful history must not be turned into an indictment of every Nardaran resident. Its political lesson, however, remains clear: There should be no territory inside the country where compliance with the law depends on permission from local religious leaders. No settlement, neighborhood or school can become a separate jurisdiction.
Today the Nardaran coastline is also associated with a very different way of life. Sea Breeze hosts international events, and the resort said DREAM FEST 2026 featured more than 50 performers from Azerbaijan and abroad, including the United Kingdom and Canada.
A resort does not describe the whole of Nardaran. Yet the contrast is instructive: The same territory can be a place of tourism, cultural exchange and open interaction. Residents’ religious faith can coexist with that life. A demand that everyone else submit to one group’s religious rules cannot.
Parental Authority Must Have Limits
The hardest question concerns families in which control over a girl’s clothing becomes part of a broader effort to control her fate.
A headscarf alone proves nothing about a family. It cannot automatically be equated with early marriage or abuse.
But when a girl is forced to cover herself, isolated from others, removed from school or prepared for marriage, society must stop hiding behind the word “tradition.”
Parents who arrange early marriages must be addressed directly: You are disposing of another person’s life. A daughter is not a family asset to be transferred to another household after an agreement among adults.
Those who impose marriage to a relative to preserve property, convenience or control have nothing to be proud of. Kinship does not replace free consent. Approval from elders does not make coercion acceptable.
It is especially cynical to demand respect for parental beliefs while denying a daughter the right to continue her education, choose a profession and decide for herself whom to marry.
A girl should not have to pay for her family’s reputation with her future.
Protect the Child Consistently
Secular schools must withstand pressure, but that obligation must be applied consistently: A student must be protected from family coercion and from humiliation by adults inside the school.
Pulling off a headscarf by force, publicly shaming a child or treating her as the cause of the conflict is unacceptable. Rules should be explained and enforced lawfully while preserving access to education. Adults who make threats or commit violence must bear responsibility for their conduct.
The defense of secular education cannot end with an inspection of clothing at the school entrance. It must continue wherever a girl is kept out of class, forced to abandon her studies or prepared for a marriage she did not choose. Otherwise, the state may protect the uniform while failing to protect the child.
Parents demanding religious exemptions at school should begin by respecting their own daughter’s autonomy. Give her an education. Let her ask questions. Do not punish disagreement. Do not choose her husband.
A girl must have a future she can choose for herself. Neither family honor nor a religious slogan gives adults the right to take it away.
Source: Vesti Baku