Outrage in north Cyprus as government legalize hijab wearing in schools

Teachers and opposition political figures in north Cyprus reacted with outrage after the government amended regulations regarding schools’ dress codes to allow pupils to wear hijabs from Monday onwards.

The new regulation writes that head coverings due to religious beliefs are permitted to be worn, provided that they are only made up of one colour and that that colour “matches the school uniform”.

‘Education minister’ Nazim Cavusoglu then hailed the move in an interview with Turkish newspaper Sabah on Monday, explaining that “we did not have a problem in our high schools and middle schools”.

“The ban in question was only really in force in our middle schools. With this decision, which we have implemented as of Monday, we have in a sense overcome the headscarf ban implemented in middle schools,” he said.

Among the reactions was a social media post written by former TRNC president Mustafa Akinci, who made a rare intervention into day-to-day politics to comment on the matter.

“The main thing in education is to deal with the inside of children’s heads, to ensure that they grow up as free individuals who read, think, and ask questions. They make their own decisions about the outside of their heads when they reach the age at which they can act with their own free will,” he said.

Opposition political party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman also weighed in on the matter, accusing the ruling coalition of stoking divisions in society by making the change.

“You cannot be unaware that when you make such a change, you will create a debate, even a confrontation, in society over ‘secular education’ and ‘freedoms’. If you do not know, you cannot undertake a job such as governing a country anyway,” he began.

He pointed out that the issue of whether children should be allowed to wear hijabs at schools “is known to have created significant problems in Turkey for years”, and said the ruling coalition should first have “evaluated the matter thoroughly, convening the authorised boards, and holding the necessary consultations” with teachers and other stakeholders.

He stopped short of expressing his own opinion about whether hijabs should be allowed at schools, however, saying, “no matter what anyone says, I have no intention of getting involved in this discussion right now and adding new bricks to the wall of nonsense you have built”.

Meanwhile, Cyprus Turkish secondary education teachers’ trade union (Ktoeos) leader Selma Eylem was less willing to mince her words.

“Social engineering is being attempted with practices such as theology colleges, Quran courses, religious foundations and associations, Sufi lodges. These conservative policies imposed on the Turkish Cypriot community are aimed at destroying social tolerance and polarising people,” she said.

“We know that wearing a headscarf for children under the age of 18 years old is not a matter of freedom, but a tool of discrimination and oppression. The constitution and European Court of Human Rights decisions clearly show that the state has no religion and that religious symbols are a divisive element in educational institutions.”

She added that the north’s ruling coalition “is paving the way for child abuse with this regulation”, and promised that her union would continue to fight against the regulation change.

Teachers at the school at which she teaches, the Irsen Kucuk middle school in the Lefkosa district of Ortakoy, were on strike throughout Monday.

Tansport minister Erhan Arikli pointed out that the wearing of headscarves is allowed at schools in the south, and that in 2019, the education minister of the day Costas Hambiaouris had stepped in to transfer a headteacher to a different school after he attempted to discipline a girl for wearing one.

He was also keen to point out that many who have condemned the ruling coalition’s decision “also advocate for a federal solution in Cyprus”.

“Now, the question is, if the federation of your dreams is established, will you continue to defend the headscarf ban in Muslim northern Cyprus while headscarves are allowed in Christian southern Cyprus? Or are you planning to put a condition on the table during federation negotiations that headscarf bans be implemented in schools across a federal Cyprus?” he asked.

Cyprus Mail