House Pressures National Police After Hijab Policy
The lawmakers called on Sutarman to immediately reinstate the new policy.
Bukhari Yusuf of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Taslim Chaniago of the National Mandate Party (PAN), members of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs and human rights, said Sutarman could not deny the rights of female police members to perform their religious duties.
“Islam obliges women to cover their body and hair, regardless of their occupations. I applauded Sutarman’s commitment in revoking the hijab ban. But why did Sutarman suspend the decision? There’s no reason to do that,” Bukhari said during a meeting in Jakarta.
Shortly after he assumed office in late November, Sutarman issued a verbal order to revoke a 2005 National Police chief regulation prohibiting female officers from wearing the hijab on duty.
The 2005 regulation excluded female police officers in Aceh, given the province had, in 2001, issued an Islamic bylaw obliging all women to cover their hair.
Responding to Sutarman’s order on Nov. 22, some female police officers began wearing headscarves and swapped their short-sleeved shirts and knee-length skirts for long-sleeved shirts and long trousers.
One week later, however, National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Oegroseno issued a confidential telegram ordering female officers to stop wearing headscarves to work until the National Police had issued a regulation on a new uniform.
Sutarman said he was not happy with how the headscarf plan had played out.
Source: Jakarta Post
