KRASNOYARSK, April 17 (RIA Novosti) – The Krasnoyarsk State Medical University has annulled internal rules banning students from wearing items of clothing that reflect their religious beliefs, including Islamic headscarves, the regional prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.
Prosecutors in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk Region had earlier demanded that the rules be annulled as violating the law on education.
The issue was brought into the spotlight after media reported in March that a female student had been expelled from the university for wearing a traditional Islamic headscarf, or hijab. University staff said the young woman, who came from Russia’s predominantly Muslim North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan, had repeatedly violated the university statute that bans students from wearing headdresses and other clothes “demonstrating the wearer’s religious identity” during lectures.
Women’s traditional clothing in Muslim countries
“Having considered the prosecutor’s objection to the ban on clothing expressing a student’s religious beliefs and to the expulsion of the student, the [university] rules have been brought into accordance with current legislation, and the expulsion repealed,” prosecutors said.
University officials were not immediately available for comment.