Indonesian varsities push students to shun full veil
Move follows concerns over rising fundamentalism in the Muslim- majority nation
A pair of Indonesian Islamist universities are pushing female students to ditch niqab face veils — with one threatening expulsion for non- compliance — as concerns grow over rising fundamentalism in the world’s biggest Muslimmajority nation.
Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University said it issued the edict this week to more than three dozen niqab- wearing students, who will be booted from school if they refuse.
Although niqabs are common in ultra- conservative Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states, they’re rare in secular Indonesia, where around 90 percent of its 260 million people have traditionally followed a moderate form of Islam.
For many Indonesians, the niqab — a full veil with a small slit for the eyes — is an unwelcome Arab export and some associate it with radical Islam, which the country has wrestled with for years. “We are a state university... we’ve been told to spread moderate Islam,” the school’s chancellor Yudian Wahyudi told a press briefing this week.
The school, based in Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta, has some 10,000 students. Another Yogyakarta- based institution, Ahmad Dahlan University, has also introduced a new prohibition on the niqab out of fears it might stir up religious radicalism, which has seen a resurgence on many of the nation’s university campuses.
here will be no penalty for those who refuse, it added.
“But during exams, they cannot wear it because officials have to match the photos on their exam ID with them,” university chancellor Kasiyarno said.