Nigeria Muslims Warn Lagos Schools against Removing Students’ Hijab
This came two months after the Court of Appeal granted the right to wear hijab in all public primary and secondary schools in Lagos State, interpreting that sections 38 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) guarantees the fundamental human right of wearing hijab, according to the Vanguard newspaper.
Also, the All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools, ANCOPSS, has asked members not to direct students to remove or seize hijab.
Amir of the MSSN, Lagos State, Mr. Saheed Ashafa, who gave the warning, yesterday, in a statement, insisted that students should neither be punished, harassed nor victimized for wearing hijab within and outside the school premises.
He stated that: "Though, we do not expect any teacher to act to the contrary, if they do, we urge our members to ensure that they resist removing the hijab with their own hands. They should ensure that the teacher or overzealous principal do it themselves. And after any of the education stakeholders does that, he or she should be prepared for legal and mass actions.”
Reminding the stakeholders that the right to wear hijab has been granted in Lagos State-owned public schools, Ashafa said: "It will not be fair for any tutor-general, principal or teacher to order any student to remove their hijab; such action amount to committing contempt of court.
An appeals court in Nigeria in July ruled against a ban on Nigerian Muslim girls to wear the headscarf to schools in the southwestern state of Lagos.
The appeals court in Lagos overturned an earlier ruling in 2013 that had banned the right to hijab in government schools in the state.
Nigeria has an estimated population of about 170 million people and is almost equally divided between a mainly-Muslim north and a predominantly-Christian south.
