Azerbaijan, Baku / Тrend corr S. Aghayeva / The Baku Education Department wants to prohibit female teachers from wearing trousers in schools, according to the head of the Baku Education Department, Zamina Aligizi. The recommendation has caused protests from teachers who consider wearing trousers to be comfortable.
"There are female teachers who come to school in tight trousers, jeans, and translucent blouses," Aligizi said. She also noted that the Department has no intentions to make teachers wear skirts, but that is just a recommendation.
The Education Ministry is unaware of the recommendations, but promises to study the issue.
Provocative clothes, including tight trousers, negatively affect pupils' upbringing and education, a human rights activist of the Society for Protection of Azerbaijani Women's Rights, Sadagat Pashayeva said. "Gaudy clothes, make-up, and hairstyles distract students' attention away from their studies."
A human rights activist with a thirty-year term of pedagogical service, Saida Gojamanly, also believes that female teachers should not make excessive use of tight clothes. According to her, before imposing bans on cloths, heating systems in schools should be improved.
A teacher of Baku City Surakhany District School 275 agrees with Gojamanly. She said that trousers are comfortable and she would not like to stop wearing them in the workplace.
Reforms in schools should not begin with a ban on trousers, another human rights activist, Novella Jafaroghlu, said. She also opposed the recommendations made by the Baku Education Department.