Nigerian school makes Muslim girls remove headscarves

Nigeria’s headscarf crisis festered Friday after footage emerged online of school guards and teachers ordering Muslim girls to remove their headscarves before entering a school compound in the

Nigeria’s headscarf crisis festered Friday after footage emerged online of school guards and teachers ordering Muslim girls to remove their headscarves before entering a school compound in the southwestern town of Ibadan.

The video sparked outrage on social media as Nigerians took sides mostly along religious lines over a topic that has become the subject of a long-drawn legal war.

The 45-second clip was filmed at The International School, Ibadan.

“Let them go to hell!” a teacher was heard shouting at one student’s mother, who said the school’s action was a recipe for a national crisis.

“You people are just looking for a problem,” she jeered as her daughter was directed to pull off her hijab.

The teachers, however, said the children were free to wear the headscarves outside the school premises.

Gimba Kakanda, a public affairs analyst, said the action taken by the school amounted to “targeted discrimination”.

In a landmark judgment in 2016, Nigeria’s Appeal Court ruled that the hijab qualifies as a constitutional right and should be allowed in school or anywhere, striking down the ruling of a lower court that had upheld its ban in southwestern Lagos state. The government has since appealed the ruling.