Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. S.Agayeva / Another two students of the Azerbaijan Teachers Institute were removed from class because they were wearing hijabs. The students were not allowed to participate in the class by order of the rector of the Institute, said Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, the Chairman of the Centre on Protection of Freedom of Conscience and Religion.
There is no ban for wearing a hijab in public places in the Azerbaijani legislation and the Education Ministry does not prohibit it in education institutions, Bayram Huseynzadeh, the head of the Department on Public Communication at the Minister, said.
Previously, 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. Azerbaijan is the secular country, we respect citizens' right of freedom of religion, and it is not right to confuse secular education with religious ones. The students of the Institute should respect the existing rules of the educational centre where they receive study," Rabiyat Aslanova, the Chairman of the permanent parliamentary commission on human rights, said.