(The Turkish Post) – The Azerbaijan headscarf dispute widened this week after new government rules on what teachers may wear, with teachers in the capital, Baku, and the city of Sumgayit saying school heads told them to remove their headscarves or resign.
The rules follow a September change to the dress code for pupils, after which girls wearing headscarves were turned away at some school gates. Neither decision mentions the headscarf by name. Both require clothing in state schools to comply with the principle of secularism.
New dress code for teachers
The Cabinet of Ministers adopted decision No. 325 on Oct. 6, setting out requirements for the clothing of educators at state general education institutions. Its article 1.6 states that “educators’ clothing must comply with the principle of the secular nature of education.”
Teachers at several schools in Sumgayit and at school No. 90 in Baku’s Ramana district told an Azerbaijani online broadcaster that they had been instructed to uncover their heads or submit their resignations. The Ministry of Education and Science has not commented on the reports.
On Sept. 21, the cabinet amended the dress code for pupils at state schools to bar clothing that breaks the integrity of the school uniform or does not comply with the principle of secularism. Each school’s pedagogical council decides whether an item of clothing meets the rules.
Videos shared on social media afterward showed schoolgirls in headscarves being turned away at school gates in Sumgayit and in the southern Jalilabad district.
State television defends the Azerbaijan headscarf rules
A broadcast on Azerbaijani state television, reported on Saturday, Oct. 10, showed pupils with and without headscarves side by side under the question: “Which school would you like to study in? The choice is yours.”
“Azerbaijan is a Muslim but secular state,” the program said, adding that “no one can accuse us of not valuing Islamic values.”
Azerbaijan’s constitution defines the country as a secular state. Most of its roughly 10 million people are Muslims, the majority of them Shiite. In 2010, an earlier ban on headscarves in schools set off protests in the country.
A theologian who spoke out against the new restrictions, Abgul Suleymanov, was sentenced in September to 30 days of administrative detention, according to rights advocates and media reports.
Reaction in Türkiye
The Azerbaijan headscarf measures drew strong criticism in Türkiye, where a social media campaign and protests followed the first reports of pupils being turned away. Several Turkish newspapers compared them to the restrictions imposed in Türkiye after the military’s intervention of Feb. 28, 1997, which kept women in headscarves out of universities and public jobs for years.
Türkiye lifted its own headscarf restrictions gradually, first at universities around 2010 and then in the civil service in 2013.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 23, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: “We regard the headscarf ban introduced in schools by certain countries as an attack on women’s most fundamental rights.” He did not name any country.
Ankara stresses ties with Baku
As the Azerbaijan headscarf row grew, President Ilham Aliyev, speaking at his ruling New Azerbaijan Party’s congress in Baku, warned foreign actors against meddling in the country’s affairs without naming any. “Everyone should know their place; they should not interfere in our affairs,” he said.
Ömer Çelik, spokesman for Türkiye’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), said Erdoğan and Aliyev were in full coordination and that differences on domestic and foreign policy between the two countries were normal. He said some countries were trying to come between Türkiye and Azerbaijan and would not be allowed to do so.
The two countries describe their relationship as “one nation, two states.” Türkiye backed Azerbaijan in the 2020 war over Nagorno-Karabakh, and the two signed an alliance agreement, the Shusha Declaration, in 2021.
