Crisis Looms At Nigeria Law School Over Hijab

Muslim Sisters in Nigeria Law School, Lagos Campus, have petitioned stakeholders on the insistence of the school authorities that they must remove their head covering (hijab) for data capturing exercise.


 Those petitioned include the school’s director-general and deputy director general, chairman, Nigerian Benchers, National Assembly Committees on Judiciary and Human Rights, Muslim Students Society of Nigeria and Muslim Lawyers Association.

 In the petition made available to newsmen in Ibadan yesterday, the Muslim sisters said that the school directed those who wore Hijab during data capturing, to go back and make sure that their ear lobes were exposed.

“This directive did not go down well with us and we swiftly applied to the office of the deputy director general to kindly exempt us from doing data capture with ear lobes exposed. Rather than listening to our complaints and show respect for our faith, the school authority ably led by the DDG, Mrs TounAdebiyi, vehemently refused.

 “She insisted that the school authority would not shift ground. She claimed that about 80 per cent of the female Muslim students have complied. Even with the intervention of the school’s MSSN leadership and the representatives of the Muslim Lawyers Association, the DDG still insisted.

“Even when we show the DDG an International passport data capture with hijab without ear lobes been shown, the DDG stated that their own data capturing machine would not perform effectively if the ear lobes are not shown,’’ part of the statement reads.

 According to them, the school authority had threatened to disallow any student that did not do the data capture from sitting for the examination.

“Doing this data capturing by removing our head covering is contrary to our religious beliefs, Islam, which is recognised by Nigerian Constitution, and it will cause us emotional and psychological trauma.

``I think Nigerian public should know what is going on in our Law School.

It was in the same profession that female students for Call to Bar ceremony MUST loose their hair and expose it irrespective of their religious belief.

 ``Our representatives in the National Assembly as well as well-meaning Nigerians should please come to the aid of our Muslim female students to nip this breach of human rights in the name of professional requisite in the bud,’’ they said.