In Azerbaijan, schoolgirls have been denied entry to classes due to their headscarves, prompting protests outside state schools in the capital, Baku, and in southern districts such as Masally and Jalilabad. The education ministry began enforcing new uniform rules last Monday that prohibit female students from wearing hijabs. Protests are uncommon in Azerbaijan, a country with a population of 10.5 million that is constitutionally secular. President Ilham Aliyev has been in power since 2003 and has a history of suppressing dissent, with many opposition politicians and independent journalists imprisoned.
The new rules, approved on September 21, aim to uphold the principle of secularism in education but do not explicitly mention the hijab. The interior ministry reported that 37 individuals were detained for obstructing the enforcement of these rules. Videos of protests have circulated on social media, including one where students outside School No. 69 in Balakhany displayed a banner stating, "The hijab does not prevent anyone from getting an education."
Shahiza Huseynova, a mother protesting in the Mashtaga district, was detained and warned that she must either remove her child's hijab or face imprisonment. Activist Ilkin Huseynov, who launched an online platform to support students barred from school, has reportedly been missing since being taken by unidentified men.
The protests have primarily occurred in conservative neighborhoods and areas near the border with Iran, where authorities remain cautious of religious influence. Azerbaijan's State Service for Special Communications and Information Security reported a cyberattack by a pro-Iranian group on state websites during this period.
Azerbaijani officials have defended the headscarf ban, with MP Nigar Arpadarai stating that children do not choose to wear the hijab independently. The situation has drawn criticism from Turkey, Azerbaijan's ally, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's adviser calling the restrictions "unacceptable". Small demonstrations occurred outside Azerbaijan's embassy in Ankara, organized by Islamist groups.
The New Azerbaijan Party responded to Turkish officials' comments, labeling them as defamatory and warning against interference in Azerbaijan's internal affairs. Tensions have also arisen due to Azerbaijan's relationships with Israel, which have been linked to the headscarf controversy. On October 13, during a regional security summit in Baku, delegations from Turkey, Iran, and other countries walked out when Israel's President Isaac Herzog spoke.