{"id":2643,"date":"2026-10-13T21:03:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T16:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2643"},"modified":"2026-10-13T21:03:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T16:03:43","slug":"azerbaijan-faces-protests-over-hijab-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2643","title":{"rendered":"Azerbaijan faces protests over hijab rules"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Azerbaijan on Tuesday defended its decision to introduce school uniform rules that have led to protests over restrictions on Islamic headscarves, and told close ally Turkiye to \u200bstay out of its domestic affairs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Azerbaijan, whose constitution separates religion from the \u200cstate and guarantees freedom of religion, is a secular former Soviet republic with a predominantly Muslim population.<\/p>\n

The dispute threatens to strain relations between Azerbaijan and Turkiye, and highlights the challenges Baku faces \u200bin enforcing secularism.<\/p>\n

The government introduced rules last month that prohibit school pupils from wearing \u200bclothing that departs from the official school uniform or is incompatible with \u2060the secular character of state education.<\/p>\n

The rules do not explicitly mention the hijab, \u200bbut some protests broke out this week after reports that some pupils and teachers wearing \u200bIslamic headscarves were being denied entry to schools.<\/p>\n

The Interior Ministry said on Monday that 37 people had been detained for disrupting public order while opposing enforcement of the rules.<\/p>\n

The governing Yeni Azerbaijan Party (YAP) on \u200bTuesday criticised an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and lawmakers from Turkiye\u2019s ruling \u200bAK Party for speaking out against Azerbaijan\u2019s new rules.<\/p>\n

The adviser, Oktay Saral, wrote on X on Monday that \u200cit \u2060was \u201cunacceptable\u201d to deny the right to an education to Azerbaijani students who wear headscarves.<\/p>\n

\u201cA headscarf is not an obstacle; it is a requirement of religious belief,\u201d he said. \u201cWe expect Azerbaijan to reverse this mistake as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, YAP condemned Saral\u2019s \u200bcomments as \u201cpopulist and irresponsible\u201d \u200band said they risked \u2060harming relations between the close allies, adding that the new rules were based on equality, secularism and the rule of law.<\/p>\n

It \u200bsaid Turkiye was also constitutionally secular and warned Ankara against using \u200bAzerbaijan\u2019s education \u2060policies for political purposes.<\/p>\n

The principle of \u201cone nation, two states\u201d \u2014 used to describe the countries\u2019 close ties \u2014 did not justify interference in each other\u2019s domestic affairs or the imposition of political \u2060and \u200bideological views, YAP said.<\/p>\n

It also rejected criticism of Azerbaijan\u2019s \u200bclose relations with Israel, saying they were based on international law and mutual interests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Azerbaijan on Tuesday defended its decision to introduce school uniform rules that have led to protests over restrictions on Islamic headscarves, and told close ally Turkiye to \u200bstay out of its domestic affairs. Azerbaijan, whose constitution separates religion from the \u200cstate and guarantees freedom of religion, is a secular former Soviet republic with a predominantly Muslim population. The dispute threatens to strain relations between Azerbaijan and Turkiye, and highlights the challenges Baku faces \u200bin enforcing secularism. The government introduced rules last month that prohibit school pupils from wearing \u200bclothing that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}