Quote:
Kyrgyzstan’s self-described traditionalist movement, which emphasizes a Kyrgyz identity predating Islam, has also joined the fray, with a coalition of groups collecting signatures opposing hijabs in schools. One member of a youth organization has even offered to personally defend the minister of education. “The hijab is foreign to us,” said Chinara Seidahmatova of the Fund for the Rebirth of the Spiritual Legacy of the Kyrgyz. “Kyrgyz women never wore a headscarf until they were married. Here we have eight-year-old girls wearing [a] hijab. It’s simply ignorance, even theological ignorance.”
In Kazakistan
Quote:
One university official from the state university, Atyrau, from which the woman was expelled, however, defended the decision.
“If we allow the hijab in our schools today, tomorrow followers of Hare Krishna and Buddhism will come in their traditional outfits too.”
Earlier this month, two men in the Kazakh capital Astana began a hunger strike to highlight the plight of women they say are discriminated against for wearing the hijab.
And last week, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev weighed in on the issue during a meeting with professionals and scholars.
“I am categorically against the hijab, and especially don’t want female students wearing it,” RFE/RL reported the president as saying.
“We’ve never had it in our history. It has never been a part of our religious traditions.”
-- modesty?