The Khimar Ban in the Islamic Academy in Tashkent!
(Translated)

Four students from the International Islamic Academy in Tashkent were expelled for refusing to take off the Khimar (head cover). Another 60 students remain at risk of facing the same fate because they did not return to classes after they were made to choose between taking off the Khimar or being expelled from the academy. Under the pressure of the academy's administration, 60 out of 124 female students were made to wear wigs and a cap, and they were not even allowed to wrap a "handkerchief" around their necks.

In a photograph taken by the BBC radio, a girl is seen crying bitterly after being pressured to take off her Khimar. Those who refused to take it off were forced to wait in the management office with their bags for the whole day.

The teachers who wear the Khimar were also asked to do the same, but most of the teachers left the academy and quit their job. BBC radio also reported that a draft resolution on measures taken to provide high school students with modern school forms developed by the Council of Ministers for the 2018-2019 academic year in a national debate.

The Islamic Academy was established in April 2018 by the decree of President Shaukat Mirzayev signed on 15th December 2017. The decree stipulates that the Academy shall be under the management of the Uzbek Muslim Council and that it shall be a non-governmental educational and research institution for religious and secular education. The Academy offers master's degree in the field of Science of the Qur'an, Science of Jurisprudence, Studies of Hadith and Science of Speech.

"Uzbekistan started late as a country in the study of Islam," Mirzayev said previously. However, dozens of students at the Islamic Academy were expelled from the university because of the Khimar, and some staff were forced to leave the academy.

So the current policy of Uzbekistan is still in line with the old policy inherited from Karimov despite the empty rhetoric.

Since the beginning of the new school year 2018, the issue of school uniforms has been a public concern not only in Uzbekistan, but also in neighbouring countries, such as Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

In these predominantly Muslim countries, the great majority hope to study Islam and to follow it. The opening of the Islamic Academy in Tashkent has created a great joy for young men and women, because Islamic schools, institutes and universities in Uzbekistan are very few, and the numbers of those accepted in them are limited.

But unfortunately, their happiness did not last long because of the unfair banning of the Khimar from the first day of the academic year in the academy and the prohibition of performing prayer there at all. Every day at the entrance to the university, police officers check uniforms worn by male students and female students who find themselves among two options; either to give up Khimar or leave education. This is unjust and a violation of the rule of the Shariah, so how do they dare to fight the Islamic dress that Allah (swt) has commanded in His Book

(يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ قُلْ لِأَزْوَاجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسَاءِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ جَلَابِيبِهِنَّ)

“O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments.” [Al-Ahzab: 59] And in Allah (swt) saying:

(وَلْيَضْرِبْنَ بِخُمُرِهِنَّ عَلَى جُيُوبِهِنَّ) “...and to wrap [a portion of] their head covers over their juyoob (collar bone)” [An-Nur: 31]

This does not make sense. Although the Islamic Academy claims to teach the Deen of Islam, but the laws of these educational institution prohibit the practice of Shariah rules!!

What is the real objective of the Uzbek government? Is it the establishment of educational institutions to teach Islamic sciences, or is it the preparation of religious scholars who do not abide by the law of their Lord?! Isn’t this a clear denial of Allah’s Deen (swt)?!

The Uzbek government uses traitor Imams to justify this deception; these Imams dare to produce fatwas of the necessity to follow the decree of the state, and they incite the poor to abide by this without hesitation and thought.

O Muslims in Uzbekistan!

They are trying to cover the sun with a sieve (hide the clear truth); President Shaukat Mirzayev and his followers want to be distant from Allah's law; rather, they fight anyone who tries to revive the law of Allah and bring it back to life.

O Pious Men in Uzbekistan! Your daughters, your wives, your sisters and your mothers are your honour that you must protect, and you must do everything in your power to preserve your honour.

Today, mothers and fathers, whose heart is broken by the pain of their daughters’ expulsion from schools for adhering to the Islamic dress, will face worse situations tomorrow, because the Uzbek regime will not stop the injustice under President Shaukat Mirzayev, as it didn’t during the days of tyrant Karimov. We should uproot this criminal regime and throw into a deep abyss.

This criminal government has turned its back to the rules of the Shariah. It is only fitting for those dear countries to return to the Islamic life under the shade of a just Khalifah (Caliph) who fears Allah and implements His Shariah completely.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Mukhlisah Al-Uzbekiyah