Spiritual Management of Muslims explains right to wear hijab in Kazakhstan

The Spiritual Management of Muslims of Kazakhstan has explained the rights of Muslim women to wear hijabs and declared that it does not contradict with the country's laws, Azan.kz writes. The Spiritual Management issued a fatwa in relation to many requests from different organizations regarding hijabs and related problems. The first part of the fatwa has a religious justification of Muslim women's obligation to cover their body, except for hands and face when in the presence of men who are stranger to them. The fatwa writes that "this has always been part of traditional Kazakh women behavior, despite of the attempts to scratch out this facts from the history of Kazakh people that are made by hijab antagonists". Kazakh women have traditionally worn a scarf or kimeshek (Kazakh national headdress) and modest clothes that covered the whole body. According to the Spiritual Management, the correct way to wear clothes in compliance with Shariat is to wear the above-mentioned setб which is similar to Arabic outfits minus niqab (face-veil covering all but the eyes) to create a positive image of Islam in Kazakhstan. "Kazakh's culture is unique and traditional Kazakh clothes for women always complied with Shariat principles. That's why there is no need to copy Arab or Pakistani styles. The most important is to make sure that the aurat (the parts of the body that have to be covered according to Shariat laws) is covered," the fatwa writes. Citing the Kazakhstan law On religious activities and religious unions, the Spiritual Management of Muslims of Kazakhstan notes that "forcing someone to take the head cover off, as well as non-admission to studies because of their refusal to take the head cover off is considered an obstruction to lawful religious activities, violation of the civil rights of the individuals on the grounds of biased attitude to a religion and insult to their religious feelings". The Spiritual Management also notes that "the right to wear a head cover is "the civil right of individuals based on their attitude to a religion". And the head cover itself is "the object honored by the followers of certain religions" and tearing it off from the head or a demand to take it off is considered a defiling of this object and insult to religious feelings of Muslim women and all Muslims, which is strongly prohibited by this law". In this relation the Spiritual Management considers it unlawful to oppress Muslims in relation to hijabs, as their rights are reserved by the law. First of all, this is related to the cases when employers or educational facilities try to prohibit wearing of hijabs.