Crisis In Osun State Over The Use Of Hijab

There seems to be a pending crisis over the resolve of the Muslim community in Osun State to enforce the use of hijab in public schools.

The Muslims are insisting that it is their right to use the hijab, because it is for the edification of Muslim girls, but the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has vowed to resist the move. Addressing newsmen in Osogbo, the president-general of Osun State Muslim  Community, Sheikh Salaudeen Olayiwola, said  that  section 38 of  the 1999 Constitution provided for freedom of religion, just as  he insisted that it was the right of Muslim ladies to use hijab. 

“Indeed, the hijab, niqab or burqa being part and parcel of Islamic mode of dressing  and by whatever standard a dignified and vividly decent one, cannot be taken away by any other law other than the constitution,”he noted. 

Sheikh Olayiwola said that they were not fighting the Christian community because they had a meeting point, the Nigeria Inter Religion Committee (NIREC), where issues that affect the two bodies are discussed.

Reacting to the plan  to enforce the use of hijab in public schools in a telephone chat, the state chairman of CAN, Superior Evangelist Abraham Aladeseye, said the Muslims were only looking for an avenue to foment trouble adding that they would not be allowed to carry out their intention.

He said their action contravened  government’s directive , which banned the use of hijab in non Muslim schools.