The European Muslims League shares the following statement by Professor Dr. Mustafa Cerić, Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia, as a valuable contribution to the international dialogue on religious freedom and the right to education.
The EML expresses its respect for the Republic of Azerbaijan, its people and its institutions, and believes that matters concerning religious expression and education should be addressed through constructive dialogue, mutual understanding and respect for human dignity.
The European Muslims League remains committed to promoting religious freedom, peaceful coexistence and dialogue among peoples, cultures and institutions.
IDENTITY IS IN THE MIND, NOT ON THE HEAD!
A protest against the humiliation of students and teachers wearing the hijab in Azerbaijan
With profound indignation and the strongest moral condemnation, I raise my voice against denying students and teachers in Azerbaijan access to schools because they wear the hijab. Reports of girls being left outside school gates and teachers facing demands to remove their headscarves offend human dignity and the very purpose of education.
No authority has the moral right to confront a child with this humiliating choice: abandon the expression of your religious identity or abandon your classroom!
What kind of concern for education closes school doors to a girl? What kind of defence of freedom forces a woman to remove what she has freely chosen to wear? What kind of confidence in knowledge judges a student’s ability and a teacher’s dignity by the scarf upon her head?
To the authorities of Azerbaijan, I say: identity is in the mind, not on the head!
It lives in consciousness, conscience, memory and conviction. The hijab may be its visible expression, but identity does not disappear when that expression is removed. You can prescribe a uniform; you cannot prescribe a conscience. You can stop a girl at the school gate; you cannot thereby prove that you are right. You prove only that you possess power and are using it against someone less able to protect herself from you.
In this, I see one of the worst forms of political cowardice: displaying strength before a child who wishes to learn.
The secular character of the state should guarantee a shared space in which no one must conceal their faith to be an equal citizen. When secularism becomes a demand that believers make themselves invisible, it loses its justification in freedom and becomes an instrument of coercion.
A school can be secular while a girl attending it is Muslim. The curriculum can be shared while the consciences of its students differ. A state demonstrates its maturity precisely through its ability to accept this fact.
Particularly disgraceful is the mentality of subservience that seeks to prove its supposed progressiveness by suppressing Islam and humiliating Muslim women. I call it subservient because it seeks to turn a free human being into an obedient subject, permitted an education only on condition that she bends her conscience to the will of those in power.
Progress is measured by knowledge, justice, freedom and the dignity of citizens. A state that boasts of its modernity while leaving girls outside closed school doors exposes the depth of its own moral defeat.
It is shameful to tell a girl who has come seeking knowledge that she is unwelcome because of her hijab. It is even more shameful to present such humiliation as an educational measure. And most shameful of all is to expect the humiliated girl to accept that this is being done for her own good.
I defend a woman’s right to wear the hijab just as firmly as I defend her right not to wear it. Neither family, society nor the state may claim ownership of her conscience. Freedom entails choice, and choice ceases to be free when it is extracted through the threat of losing an education or a livelihood.
My condemnation is directed at the decision and conduct of the authorities. To the brotherly people of Azerbaijan, I extend my respect and solidarity, especially to the students, teachers and all those peacefully defending the right to education and freedom of belief.
I call upon the authorities of Azerbaijan to immediately remove restrictions that deny students and teachers access to schools because of the hijab; to enable their unhindered return to learning and teaching; and to give clear guarantees that no one will face reprisals for peacefully advocating these rights.
I also call upon religious communities, educational institutions and human rights organisations to speak out clearly and consistently. The dignity of a Muslim woman deserves the same protection as the dignity of every other woman. A girl’s right to education must not depend on whether those in power approve of her appearance.
As a Bosnian Muslim and someone who knows how painful it is when a person’s identity becomes a reason for exclusion, I cannot accept silence in the face of such humiliation.
Open the school doors. Give the girls back their desks, the teachers their classrooms, and education its dignity.
For the shame belongs to an authority that, confronted with a child’s headscarf, forgets its own responsibility.
Mustafa Cerić, Ph.D.
Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia
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