In yet another case of Islamic fanaticism, a school teacher in Indonesia gave a cruel punishment to students for not wearing Hijab properly. The teacher shaved the heads of these minor students, partially. The teacher took it upon herself and punish these 14 students for not following the Islamic dress code properly.
The incident is said to have been reported at the state-owned junior high school SMPN 1 in Lamongan, East Java on August 23. The teacher has been identified as Harto. Following the incident, the school issued an apology and also suspended the teacher.
It is pertinent to mention that, despite being a Muslim-majority country, Indonesia banned mandatory dress codes back in 2021. Since then there have been calls and demands from the activist groups to mandatorily impose Islamic dress codes on women, both Muslim and non-Muslim.
Notably, while speaking to AFP, Harto stated that there is no official obligation for female students to wear hijabs, but they were encouraged to wear inner caps beneath their headscarves for a neater appearance. But these 14 students did not adhere to the guidelines and hence got punished, she added.
Human rights organisations fiercely responded to this act when it was made public and requested that the teacher who was accused be fired. One of the most threatening cases ever in Indonesia, according to Andreas Harsono, an Indonesian researcher at Human Rights Watch. He underlined the importance of taking action against the teacher and getting psychologists involved to help the victims.
“The Lamongan case is probably the most intimidating ever in Indonesia,” Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“No teachers who have cut their students’ hair have ever been sanctioned. The education office in Lamongan should sanction this teacher, at least removing her from the school and assign psychologists to deal with the trauma among the victims.”
The school also apologised to the parents of the minor victims following the incident. They also assured that, to make sure the minors get rid of the trauma, pyscologosists have been contacted.
The group said in a 2021 report that some schoolgirls have had their hijabs cut if not worn correctly, while others have had marks penalised or faced expulsion for not wearing hijabs.
Cases like these are common in Indonesia, the Island country which has six religions.
Notably, the headscarf issue grabbed headlines in 2021 after a Christian student in West Sumatra was pressured to wear a hijab in a case officials described as the “tip of the iceberg”.
As per a report by Reuters, Human Rights Watch identified more than 60 discriminatory local, and provincial bylaws issued since 2001 to enforce female dress codes. A 2014 national government regulation has been widely interpreted as requiring all female Muslim students in the country of around 270 million people to wear a jilbab at school.
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