"I want to study. I have my hijab on, but they are not letting me study. I have a right to study," a distressed Azerbaijani schoolgirl was filmed saying in a video posted online, passionately advocating for her right to attend school like other children while wearing an Islamic headscarf.
Across Azerbaijan, pupils and teachers wearing hijabs have reportedly been denied entry to schools since new regulations were implemented earlier this month.
The restrictions have prompted emotional scenes captured in online footage, with schoolgirls seen in tears and students looking on in distress as a visibly veiled teacher was dismissed from school premises.
The decision, approved last month, has sparked outrage both domestically and internationally, with human rights groups such as Amnesty International describing the restrictions as discriminatory.
Speaking to The New Arab, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia director, Marie Struthers, emphasised that excluding pupils and teachers who wear the hijab from schools "violates their rights to education, and the freedoms of religion and expression."
School exclusions
The restrictions have also sparked protests across Azerbaijan, with local reports documenting demonstrations against the headscarf rules, involving girls wearing Islamic headscarves and boys joining their classmates in solidarity.
On Monday, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said it had detained 37 people for disrupting public order during the protests.
Struthers also called for the release of those detained.
"The international community should call upon Azerbaijani authorities to: reverse these discriminatory restrictions and ensure that affected pupils and teachers can return to school; immediately and unconditionally release anyone detained solely for peacefully exercising their rights; and respect the right to peaceful protest and all human rights," she said.
Struthers cited recent Amnesty reporting on the detention of Shahizyar Huseynova, the wife of Azerbaijani Muslim activist Aga Huseynov.
She was reportedly arrested last Wednesday after protesting outside a school in Baku, where their daughter had been refused entry the previous day.
"According to [Huseynov], she has been detained for four months, and the charges against her have not been provided."
Struthers also cited other reports the organisation received, including one about activist Matanat Turan (Mahmarzayeva), who is affiliated with the Azerbaijan People’s Front Party (APFP).
On Sunday, a court in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgayit reportedly imposed a two-month preventive measure on Turan after she protested against the headscarf restrictions in Khirdalan.
She added: "Ilkin Huseynov, an activist who had launched a free online platform connecting volunteer teachers with children excluded from school, including for wearing hijabs, went missing on 14 October after leaving his Baku home accompanied by unidentified people."
Growing protests amid a regional fallout
Smuthers’ urgent calls reflect concerns voiced across the country, as the controversial ban has escalated into a regional dispute, with ally Turkey declaring its firm opposition to Baku’s decision.
Oktay Saral, an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, criticised the restrictions on hijabs in Azerbaijani schools, prompting President Ilham Aliyev’s ruling party to accuse Turkish figures of interfering in Azerbaijan’s domestic affairs.
Ankara’s condemnation of the hijab ban has prompted a fierce backlash from the Azerbaijani government, which has barred 31 Turkish nationals from entering the country, including Fatih Erbakan, leader of Turkey’s New Welfare Party.
Caught in the middle of the public feud, however, are Azerbaijan’s women and girls, whose lives are being affected by the new school regulations in a country where 96 per cent of the population identifies as Muslim.
Rafig Shahbazov, a Georgia-based journalist covering developments in Azerbaijan, told TNA that there was currently “no publicly available comprehensive official figure showing how many students or teachers have been affected nationwide” by the restrictions.
He said there was also no comprehensive information on how many schools had implemented the rules, how many pupils had missed classes or whether the restrictions were being enforced consistently across the country.
However, Shahbazov stressed that continuing reports of hijab-wearing pupils and teachers being turned away from schools suggested that "the issue has not been confined to one school or a single district."
"The first protest videos I encountered came from Jalilabad, after which reports and footage emerged from Baku and surrounding villages, as well as Sumqayit and other locations," Shahbazov added.
"Baku’s School No. 69 and the school in Mollaoba village in Masalli district are among the locations mentioned in reporting and discussions surrounding the restrictions."
Shahbazov also noted that, based on publicly available evidence, students, teachers, and parents responded in various ways, including expressing solidarity with girls and women who wear the hijab.
"Some students have continued to attend school wearing hijabs despite the restrictions, while others have reportedly been prevented from entering classrooms," Shahbazov told The New Arab.
In some locations, male classmates have reportedly refused to attend lessons in solidarity with girls who were denied access.
Protesters have used slogans such as ‘Freedom for the hijab’ and ‘Let the girls go to school’, framing the issue as one of access to education as well as religious freedom.
"Parents have also challenged the restrictions. Some have protested outside schools after their daughters were reportedly refused entry," Shahbazov added.
"For many families, the central concern is not simply whether a particular item of clothing is permitted, but whether girls should have to choose between practising their faith and continuing their education. Teachers have expressed concern about the impact on their professional lives and personal religious choices."
Protests involving schoolchildren are unusual in Azerbaijan. The demonstrations have also prompted a social media campaign, with protest footage spreading online.
However, local users have since reported disruptions to access to Instagram and TikTok in the country, raising questions about the authorities’ response to the growing controversy.
Internet monitoring groups have also documented restrictions on access to the platforms, but Azerbaijani authorities have not explained the reported disruptions.
Legal questions
The growing controversy follows a series of legal changes, beginning with amendments to Azerbaijan’s general education law that reaffirmed the principle of secular education and required pupils and teachers to comply with school dress codes.
Subsequent regulations prohibited additional clothing deemed to disrupt the standard uniform or conflict with secular education.
Although the school rules do not explicitly mention the hijab, they have since been interpreted in ways that restrict the wearing of Islamic headscarves.
Emin Abbasov, an Azerbaijani human rights lawyer and chair of the Independent Lawyers Network (ILN), told The New Arab that the secularism requirement introduced under the new regulations "amounts to a ban on expressing religious belief through clothing in state schools."
He added: "Wearing religious clothing is a protected manifestation of belief which is a core part of freedom of religion both in national and international law. Restrictions must therefore have a sufficiently clear legal basis, pursue a legitimate aim and be necessary and proportionate. A general reference to secularism does not, by itself, establish that excluding pupils or teachers wearing a hijab meets these requirements."
Abbasov continued: "The vague requirement to dress ‘in accordance with secularism’ also raises questions about foreseeability and the scope for arbitrary enforcement and its impacts."
The ILN chief also cited reports by his organisation, which found that pupils and teachers wearing hijabs were reportedly denied entry to schools across Azerbaijan since October 12, sparking warnings that such restrictions raise serious concerns about freedom of religion, equality and access to education.
"The justifications appeared in state officials and pro-governmental media refer to social equality, secular education and protecting girls from religious coercion require careful scrutiny," Abbasov told The New Arab.
"However, protecting children from coercion is a legitimate concern, as is ensuring neutrality and secularity in education, but the authorities failed to demonstrate the problem of coercion and alternative — less intrusive measures such as education at schools on secularism, increased civil society role in promoting secularity, etc."
He added: "Excluding a girl from school because of her clothing risks punishing the very child the state claims to protect. It can interrupt her education, deepen isolation and undermine her future independence."
Abbasov argued that an outright ban "is a clear intervention in the right to believe of citizens," adding that it also infringes on the right to education and, for teachers, constitutes “a breach of employment rights."
The head of the ILN cited constitutional protections and international law safeguarding freedom of belief and the right to education.
He added that Azerbaijan’s government must, under both international law and the country’s constitution, adhere to key legal principles, including necessity and proportionality.
Rights at risk
In response to the backlash, Azerbaijani authorities have blamed Iranian influence for stirring division in the country — in addition to alleged Turkish influence.
More ethnic Azerbaijanis live in Iran than in Azerbaijan itself.
Azerbaijan’s State Service for Special Communications and Information Security alleged that a "foreign hacker group" had attacked more than 100 state websites on the night of 13 October.
Abbasov criticised the government’s "divisive narratives," describing the accusations of foreign influence involving Iran, Turkey and people of Arab backgrounds as "absolutely unacceptable and very harmful."
He warned that such rhetoric risked deepening isolation and perpetuating harm against the women and girls affected by the ban.
"From what we see from the protests, mostly by the secular parts of Azerbaijan, supporting religious people or the young girls and women wearing hijabs, it shows that society is not convinced that it faces any religious fundamentalism or any harm," Abbasov told The New Arab.
"The Azerbaijani government now wants to divide society between secular and religious people. And it needs somehow a foreign influence, a foreign enemy and new threats in society in order to govern or to continue governing Azeris with coercive and repressive methods that society does not want to continue."
He continued: "There are no threats; there is no reason to take any measure for protecting secularity in Azerbaijan."
The New Arab contacted Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Science and Education for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.
However, Azerbaijani officials have continued to defend the ban in public statements.
MP Nigar Arpadarai alleged that children did not choose to wear the hijab themselves but were influenced by their families.
"A child has no freedom to choose a religion. This is a conscious prerogative of adults," she told the 1news.az website.
After decades of Soviet rule, Azerbaijan emerged as one of the most secular states in the Muslim world.
Under President Ilham Aliyev, the country has maintained a poor human rights record, with the government repeatedly targeting journalists, activists and independent politicians.
Human rights organisations have long accused Aliyev’s administration of intensifying its crackdown on freedom of speech.
Assiah Hamed is a staff writer at The New Arab