Resumption: Ogun clerics direct students to wear hijab

The Ogun State League of Imams and Alfas has requested that all female Muslim students in the state begin wearing hijab in public schools.

The development follows its December meeting in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State.

The announcement for the usage of the hijab in public schools in the state occurred after a recent discussion with the state administration about the necessity for their female children to wear hijabs to compliment their school uniforms, according to the state’s Islamic authorities.

The league announced on Tuesday, in a statement signed by its Secretary General, Sheikh Tajudeen Adewunmi, that the use of hijab will commence on January 9, 2023, when students return for the second term.

Only “desiring and willing female Muslim students might wear a white-colored shoulder-length cloak Hijab when they resume for the second term of the 2022-2023 academic session on Monday, January 9, 2023, and henceforth without any fear of molestation or penalty,” according to the league.

The statement read in part, “At the end of our December 2022 general meeting, where many issues bothering the welfare of the Ummah were discussed, we resolved to express the opinion of the Muslim community (the Ummah) in the state as it concerns the following issues:

“Many female Muslim students in Nigeria, particularly in Ogun State, have continued to feature unnecessarily in many protracted cases of infringements on their rights in their quest to practise their religion, particularly in relation to the use of Hijab in schools.

“However, all doubts or controversies on the matter have been put to rest by the pronouncement of the honourable justices of the Supreme Court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which reaffirmed the rights of Muslim students in Nigerian schools to use Hijab as they so wished.

“It should also be noted that many agencies of the Ogun State government have consistently stated that there is no law that prohibits female Muslim students from wearing Hijab, despite the fact that Muslim students who wear Hijab have always been beaten, embarrassed, or humiliated in a variety of ways over the years.”

However, the league begged the state government to caution teachers and administrators against denying Muslim female students of their human rights and to approve the legalization of the headscarf in schools.

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