By Martin Cole-
The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Friday delivered a verdict approving the wearing of the Hijab to female Muslim students in Lagos State.
The majority decision of the apex court confirmed the earlier Court of Appeal’s decision which had restored the use of hijab by female Muslim students in Lagos State.. Six ruled in favour of the use of hijab, one dissented.
The controversial case involved the Lagos State Government as the appellant and Asiyat AbdulKareem (through her father), Moriam Oyeniyi, and the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria as the respondents. Cases concerning arguments over whether muslims pupils have the right to wear the hijab in schools have long been controversial, not just in Nigeria, but across different parts of the world.
Judge Grace Onyeabo of the Lagos State High Court had in a judgement, on October 2014, upheld the state government’s decision to ban the use of the hijab in public primary and secondary schools in the state.
That High Court’s decision was subsequently overturned by the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal in a judgement delivered on July 21, 2016. In a unanimous judgement, the appeal court panel ruled that the ban on the use of hijab in public schools in the state was discriminatory against Muslim pupils.
The Lagos State government unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a stay of execution of the Court of Appeal’s decision but appealed against the July 21, 2016 judgement of the Court of Appeal.
The court dismissed the appeal challenging the Court of Appeal’s decision as lacking in merit.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the hijab ban violated the students’ rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, the dignity of human persons and freedom from discrimination guaranteed by the Nigerian. A.B Gumel, who delivered the lead judgement of the Court of Appeal panel, held that wearing the hijab was an Islamic injunction and an act of worship required of Muslims.
He said the use of hijab by Muslim pupils could not cause disunity, distraction and discrimination against students of other faiths as declared by the lower court judge.
The ruling confirms how subjective court verdicts can be on matters of high controversy, so much that the same case , like in many others, produce different outcomes at different levels of the court. Other jurisdictions have differed on the same matter.
In India, the Supreme Court upheld the banning of the Hijab in schools, dismissing the presented grounds of right to conscience. The judge there stated that wearing a hijab is not an essential religious practice of Islam, and that the right to conscience is not established by the averments made by the petitioners.
The second line of the judges reasoning was that the hijab constituted an endorsement of prejudices about the practice of wearing a hijab and that it constrains freedom and that the state is furthering the cause of secularism by imposing a uniform dress code in educational institutions.
Ahmad Adetola-Kazeem, a lawyer in the pro-hijab legal team, hailed the Supreme Court’s decision in a facebook message, emphasizing that it is applicable in all the states in Nigeria.
“Supreme Court of Nigeria rules in favour of Hijab for Secondary School Students in Lagos State and by extension all states of the country. Re: SC/910/16- Lagos State Govt. and Ors V. Asiyat AbdulKareem,” the lawyer, whose father, the late Gani Adetola-Kaseem, was leading the legal team, stated.
“May Allah reward Alh. Gani Adetola-Kaseem, SAN who led the team of lawyers in this case and also signed and filed the brief of argument few weeks before his death, May He reward everyone who contributed to the success of the case abundantly,” he added.
A Muslim rights advocacy group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), also hailed the judgement of the Supreme Court.
MURIC, in its statement signed by its director, Ishaq Akintola, a professor, said: “This is the moment of truth. Divine truth has overwhelmed social truth.”
He added: “ No matter how long, truth will prevail in the end. MURIC hails this judgement. We salute the courage of the honourable justices who stood by the sanctity of the Constitution and the inviolability of our font et origo.”
He said the pronouncement had infused hope in the Nigerian judiciary.
“The justices have refused to be swayed by religious sentiment. They stuck to the facts of the case and relied on the supremacy of the Nigerian Constitution. This is evident in the constitution of the panel: only three of them are Muslims while the remaining four are Christians. Yet five of them were in favour,” he stated.
He called on the Lagos State government “to immediately implement the letter and spirit of this judgement” by issuing “a circular on the approval of hijab in all its public schools without any delay.”
He said MURIC had earlier demanded the issuance of this circular but the Lagos State government “ignored our demand to date”
Subjective Ruling
The ruling confirms how subjective court verdicts can be on matters of high controversy, so much that the same case , like in many others, produce different outcomes at different levels of the court. Other jurisdictions have differed on the same matter.
In India, the Supreme Court upheld the banning of the Hijab in schools, dismissing the presented grounds of right to conscience. The judge there stated that wearing a hijab is not an essential religious practice of Islam, and that the right to conscience is not established by the averments made by the petitioners.
The second line of the judges reasoning was that the hijab constituted an endorsement of prejudices about the practice of wearing a hijab and that it constrains freedom and that the state is furthering the cause of secularism by imposing a uniform dress code in educational institutions.
The ruling potentially adds tension to Nigeria’s very divided country across religious lines.
The Hijab is banned in schools in France, Canada, Austria. Bosnia, and a number of other countries. The different rulings shows that the way the courts decide on challenging matters like these can be sharply divided across partisan lines, and therefore a matter of opinion.
It is a day of celebration for muslim parents in Nigeria.