For a while, there has been an uprising mayhem resulting from the hotly debated issue of whether “hijrab,” the traditional scarf worn by women in Islam, should be allowed in schools or not. Recently, the walls of the education sector were shaken to the foot by this very subject when people of other religious beliefs began wearing various religious outfits in protesta mímica to the insistence that Muslim girls could wear hijrab to any school of her choice— even to Non-Islamic schools. Pictures were seen of students wearing choir uniforms, traditional wears and many others to a school assembly which resulted to a lot of confusion as the assembly had to suffer the separation that ensued from the various groups where Christians were at a side singing their gospel praises while her Muslim counterpart was from the same platform hollering “Allahu Akbar!”
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Disorganized gathering, segregated students, stunned on lookers and helpless teachers have never been known to make up a good assembly and Baptist High School, Iwo, Osun State was no exception on February 4, 20124. The whole drama was a big disappointment to the public eye and the truth is that we Nigerians are not happy with the way things are going in regards to our current state of civilization and we cordially request that something is done quickly to avert further shame on the image of our country— enact a Law if possible to put a stop to this unnecessary saga in the future.
Firstly, I’m a full supporter of unity and tolerance amongst the diversity of religions and cannot stand to let walk by the scenarios of the segregation that befell the poor school that very day which is an exemplary display of sectarianism amongst students which may even promote and bolster terrorism to some extent as one party may see this as a reason to inflict terror on members of the opposing group.
I always knew something like this would happen. I mean; seeing how Nigerians handle sensitive matters as this, I knew such a challenge would eventually surface. Countless wars have been recorded to be between both parties ever since our beloved country began accommodating external religious beliefs and cultures. I personally don’t condemn these religions however; I simply condemn the way we Nigerians handle matters related to the once-not-ours religions in this country and something need to be done before the current situation at hand leads to something more catastrophic.
Turning to issue of religious outfits, various religions are known to have insignias, cultural or traditional wears, accessories and uniforms to be worn and regarded as sacred by its believers: Our traditional religions have beads, cowries, pieces of clothing, animal skin and many more; Catholics have their rosaries, choir dress code or uniforms and of course, their hijrab-like scarves worn by Nuns; Muslim men wear turbans or caps and their women wear hijrab. All these things are fascinating to me because I love religious artifacts and sacredness but they all fall short when intertwined with western education.
For crying out loud, don’t people read school prospectus before enrolling their children into it? Prospectuses are like terms and conditions of a school and you will not be justified, whatsoever be the case, if you go against the stated rules because you agreed to abide by them. The same goes with western education.
Over the years, we as a country have been privileged to have schools that are religion-based where students are allowed to put on add-ons to their school uniforms in accordance with the prospectus of the school and the religion in question. We have been blessed with Missionary schools, Islamic schools, Catholic school, to mention but a few; most of which even regard religious items as a necessity in their requirements. With such provisions available, we ought not to be facing such shameful situations anymore.
However, many saw it as religious persecution when a teacher at the aforementioned school punished a student for putting on hijrab to school and it was even reported that a lot of the staffs got the beating of their lives from the Muslim youths around as a reprisal to the alleged persecution.
When would people start to understand that the student in question was not punished for WEARING her religions out fir per se but for NOT WEARING the “appropriate” school uniform— the very uniform sown for the student by the school? When would people realize that any add-on attached to the uniform that is not called for (e.g. Nuns’ scarf, beads, hand bands, animal skin, necklace, bracelet and of course hijrab) renders the uniform inappropriate and therefore deserving of punishment?
The Joint Muslim Action Forum (JOMAF) union came forth to state that preventing students from wearing hijrab in Christian schools is an act of religious intolerance which wouldn’t be allowed in the state. Immediately after hearing this word, I began to picture a scenario where other groups of religious bodies came forth to make similar statement regarding putting on animal skin, beads, cowries and nuns’ scarf to school and what education would turn out to be if this so-called intolerance is stopped. Talk about a school where uniformity is turned into cultural display. Yes! Preventing students from wearing hijrab in western schools in no more religious intolerance than is preventing students from wearing other cultural, traditional and religions accessories to school. Perhaps, the mayhem that befell the school at Osun state would shed more light into what I’m saying.
I would like to remind the JOMAF union that there are certain rules in Islam that can only be binding in the Islamic-dominated regions and cannot be binding in Non-Islamic domain such as “Jizyah,” the tax paid by Jews and Christians who live within the Muslim domain (Found in the Qur’an, Surah At-Tawhah 89 verse 29). Therefore they are wrong in condemning the school’s protest against students going against their appropriate uniformity.
The term “appropriate uniform” should be well taken into consideration. The essence of school uniform is to establish the sense of oneness of purpose in the minds of students where you have a student who steps into the class in this appropriate uniform and sees every other student in the same appropriate uniform. This brings him/her on the same wavelength with other students with the unique purpose of learning; where the only two permissible divisions in the uniformity are division of gender (Male student or Female student) and divisions of class (JSS student or SSS student). Other divisions such as that of religion (Christian, Muslim or Traditional), Social status, political status and many more in school uniformity will bring about unnecessary bias which could be harmful to the thinking and education of the child and should thus not be tolerated at all. It is therefore expedient, if you wish to hold on to your sacred-outfit-wearing, to enroll your child where such things match their uniformity and not to disrupt the uniformity of others.
Some may object to my review stating that many of the people in question may not be able to afford attending religion-based schools but that does not offer an okay to the dishonesty depicted in agreeing to a school’s terms and conditions you know you wish to go against. For example, we have many email services on the internet. Some are paid-to-use while others are free. Assuming the paid-to-use service providers permit 400 emails in a day while the free service providers only allow 100 emails per day in their terms and conditions. Seeing that I may not be able to afford to paid-to-use email services, I registered with a free email service provider, read the terms and conditions and agreed with them. Does my not having access to the paid-to-use service permit me to send over 100 emails thereby going against the terms and conditions I agreed to abide by merely because it is what I would have done if I could afford registering with the paid-to-use providers? No. It doesn’t work that way!
I had classmates back then who were Muslims but didn’t wear hijrab to school. They were never at any time shown any sort of religious intolerance whatsoever even though the school was a Christian school. They, like other students, were on the appropriate uniform thus punishing them was completely out of mind unless they did something wrong.
I hereby urge that instead of just accusing these non-hijrab-friendly schools of religious intolerance, Muslim, Christian, Catholic and Traditional bodies that desire to intertwine sacred-outfit-wearing with education to build and establish schools where such is permitted and part of their uniformity Law rather than unwittingly tarnish the image of uniformity of other schools.
I respect religion as a whole even though I know I may not share the same beliefs with a lot of them but I am very friendly with them all. This, however, doesn’t stop me from countering the embarrassing ignorance that may bring about conflict no matter where it emanates from.
Every school must have its Law of Uniformity and anyone going against that Rule (which they agreed to obey) should be punished accordingly. This would help reestablish the unity amongst the students where religious bias is not welcome.
Lastly, I’d like to remind both C.A.N and J.O.M.A.F that it is not a Muslim vs. Christian thing and should try by every means possible to see that this matter is peacefully resolved to prevent any sort of conflict that may threaten to arise.
Uniformity is Unity; Uniformity is Discpline.
Stay blessed
Kriss Ray (@krissrayNG) Source: http://www.krissray.com/2014/02/wearing-hijrab-to-schools-review.html |
