Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. S.Agayeva / There is no ban against wearing a hijab in public places in the Azerbaijani legislation and the Education Ministry does not prohibit it in educational institutions, Bayram Huseynzadeh, the head of the Department on Public Communication at the Minister, said on 24 September commenting on the incident which occurred in the State Teachers Institute. A group of female students wearing hijabs were not allowed into the Institute by order of the rector of the institute.
"The rector Agiya Nakhchivanli did not allow the students as they wore a hijab," Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, the Chairman of the Centre on Protection of Freedom of Conscience and Religious, said to the Trend Agency on 24 September. As a result the students appealed to the Centre.
The dean's office of the Institute made a note of the female students who were wearing the hijab and the Education Ministry will look into the case.
In compliance with the Azerbaijan legislation, women must remove their hijabs if having their photographs taken, but there is no other limitation envisaged in the legislation.