Tashkent:
Uzbekistan will let girls to put on headscarves in schools in a bid to make sure devout Muslim households send their daughters to college, the Central Asian country’s Education Ministry mentioned.
Islam is the dominant religion in Uzbekistan, but the authoritarian government is staunchly secular and has retained tight manage more than the faith in the 3 decades of independence from the Soviet Union.
Education Minister Sherzod Shermatov mentioned on September 4 that the authorities “intend to allow national headscarves and skullcaps in white or light colours” in schools following “the appeals of many parents”.
He mentioned the move was required to make sure just about every kid got a secular education.
Prototypes of the permitted headscarves presented by Shermatov recommended girls of college age would not be in a position to cover their chin as is the case with the hijab — a head covering well known all through the Muslim world.
Shermatov did not specify what age category the measures would influence.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has relaxed some controls on state-sanctioned Islam considering that coming to energy in the nation in 2016 following the death of lengthy-ruling autocrat Islam Karimov.
Earlier this year, Uzbekistan amended its law on freedom of conscience to let females to put on the hijab in public locations — although not in buildings housing state institutions, such as schools.
Other bans reversed following Karimov’s death consist of a prohibition on children attending mosques and a ban on utilizing loudspeakers for the contact to prayer.
The United States government in 2018 removed Uzbekistan’s sanction-carrying designation as a “country of particular concern” for religious freedom and last year, took it off a “special watch list” of religious freedom offenders.
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