On the 9^th of March 2013, news agencies reported that students and teachers at the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy (ASOA) have been banned from entering the campus for wearing hijab. This policy represents an extension of the current hijab ban enforced in schools across the country. The official banning of the hijab was first issued on December 10, 2010 when Misir Mardanov, from Azerbaijan's Education Ministry announced that students would be forbidden from wearing hijabs in schools. In January 2011, a new school uniform reviving ex-Soviet traditions was introduced into schools, dividing the Azeri nation and igniting violent protests. The recent action of the ASOA has caused outrage and dissent among Muslims who form around 93% of the former Soviet republic's population of 9.3 million people.

The extension of the current hijab ban to the State Oil Academy and the Azerbaijan government's lack of response to defend the identity of Muslim women reveals state sponsored Islamophobia and is in line with the government's anti-Islam campaign. This campaign includes ordering all state employees to remove Islam-related symbols from public offices such as Quranic verses and Islamic images. Draconian censorship of religious books and study is also enforced by the leadership that seems to be waging its own internal ‘war on Islam' and Muslims. It is the liberal secular political basis and policies that allow such draconian hijab bans to happen, including in countries such as in France, Germany, Belgium and Turkey. These laws profess to protect women's rights by defending those who are supposedly ‘forced ‘to wear Hijab, but Muslim women are not fooled by this shameless lie. This explanation is nothing more than a governmental spin slogan designed to conceal the real agenda of removing the political expression of Islam and forcing Muslim women to integrate and conform to Western values and norms. If the government were so sincere in looking after the welfare of Muslim women, why would they deny them education, jobs, social opportunities and respect through such bans? The truth is that Muslim women do not need rescuing from Islamic practices as it is Islamic culture that led the world in giving women an active and respectable position in society; a fact that is recognised by our Muslim brothers and sisters in Azerbaijan as they make their protest and anger about the extension of the hijab ban clear to the world. The government knows well that the issue of Hijab is not a ‘religious right', but a matter of obligation for Muslim women as discussed in the Quran,

وَقُل لِّلۡمُؤۡمِنَـٰتِ يَغۡضُضۡنَ مِنۡ أَبۡصَـٰرِهِنَّ وَيَحۡفَظۡنَ فُرُوجَهُنَّ وَلَا يُبۡدِينَ زِينَتَهُنَّ إِلَّا مَا ظَهَرَ مِنۡهَا‌ۖ وَلۡيَضۡرِبۡنَ بِخُمُرِهِنَّ عَلَىٰ جُيُوبِہِنَّ‌ۖ وَلَا يُبۡدِينَ زِينَتَهُنَّ إِلَّا لِبُعُولَتِهِنَّ أَوۡ ءَابَآٮِٕهِنَّ أَوۡ ءَابَآءِ بُعُولَتِهِنَّ أَوۡ أَبۡنَآٮِٕهِنَّ أَوۡ أَبۡنَآءِ بُعُولَتِهِنَّ أَوۡ إِخۡوَٲنِهِنَّ أَوۡ بَنِىٓ إِخۡوَٲنِهِنَّ أَوۡ بَنِىٓ أَخَوَٲتِهِنَّ أَوۡ نِسَآٮِٕهِنَّ أَوۡ مَا مَلَكَتۡ أَيۡمَـٰنُهُنَّ أَوِ ٱلتَّـٰبِعِينَ غَيۡرِ أُوْلِى ٱلۡإِرۡبَةِ مِنَ ٱلرِّجَالِ أَوِ ٱلطِّفۡلِ ٱلَّذِينَ لَمۡ يَظۡهَرُواْ عَلَىٰ عَوۡرَٲتِ ٱلنِّسَآءِ‌ۖ

"And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and protect their private parts. They should not show their Zeenah (charms) in public beyond what may (decently) be apparent thereof; hence let them draw their head-coverings (khumur) over their necks and juyub. And let them not display (more of) their charms to any but their husbands, their fathers, their husbands fathers, their sons, their husbands sons, their brothers, their brothers sons, their sisters sons, their womenfolk, their concubines, such male attendants as are beyond all sexual desire, or children that are as yet unaware of women's nakedness; and let them not swing their legs (in walking) so as to draw attention to their hidden charms." [TMQ An-Nur: 31]

In banning the hijab, the leadership of Azerbaijan are expressing blatant disrespect for Muslim women and are trying to place them in a position of choosing between submission to Allah (swt) and man-made laws.

The Women of Hizb ut Tahrir support our Azeri sisters' fight against state oppression and defend their Islamic struggle to live comprehensively as Muslims. Such bans only prove that liberal secular democracy is not universal as it discriminates against Muslim women and does not have the ability to convince us intellectually. These policies only serve to isolate Muslim women and make them more convinced that their security and honour can only be guaranteed by the Khilafah "Caliphate". This state did not play hypocritical games with people's rights and dealt fairly and justly with all citizens of the state, labelling none with a second class status. That is why the Khilafah "Caliphate" never had a women's rights movement as women had great satisfaction in their position under Islamic laws.

Imrana Mohammed

Member of The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir