DUSHANBE, Oct 20: The use of the Islamic headscarf was banned on Thursday in schools and universities of the central Asian former Soviet republic of Tajikistan in order to prevent the spread of Islamic ideology, the education minister said.

“Islamic headscarves of which there were only isolated cases a short while ago have now greatly spread,” said Abduzhabor Rakhmonov.

“They serve to propagate an ideology. For those who wish to wear headscarves there are madrasas and Quranic schools,” he said, adding: “This headwear represents a religious ideology and is in contravention of education law.”

The minister also warned that students disobeying the new rules risked expulsion from their institutions. The 6.6 million-strong population of Tajikistan is 98 per cent Muslim.

Trials of Muslim extremists have increased in number in recent years in Tajikistan, as in Uzbekistan, where human rights organizations charge that all opposition is being suppressed under the pretext of combating Muslim extremism.—AFP