Azerbaijan's education ministry has begun enforcing new school uniform rules that prohibit female pupils from wearing headscarves, leading to rare protests across the country and a diplomatic dispute with its close ally, Turkey.
Last Monday, female pupils wearing hijabs were turned away from state schools. Footage widely shared on social media showed a teenage girl in a navy blue Islamic headscarf challenging a staff member at a school entrance, stating: "Why should I have to give up my religion?" She was reportedly applauded by other girls in hijabs standing behind her.
Protests subsequently erupted outside state schools in the capital, Baku, and in several southern districts, including Masally and Jalilabad. Further videos circulated showing demonstrations in and around Baku, with pupils outside School No. 69 in Balakhany, outside Baku, holding a banner which read: "The hijab does not prevent anyone from getting an education."
Protests are uncommon in the oil- and gas-producing country of 10.5 million people. Azerbaijan is constitutionally secular, a principle the government strongly enforces. President Ilham Aliyev, who has been in power since 2003, is known for his low tolerance for dissent, with opposition politicians and independent journalists reportedly imprisoned.
The new rules, approved on 21 September, ban clothing that contradicts "the principle of secularism in education" in state schools, though they do not explicitly mention the hijab. Similar guidelines were extended to teachers on 6 October.
The interior ministry stated it had detained 37 people on Monday who had attempted to obstruct the rules and "grossly violate public order."
Among those reportedly detained was Shahiza Huseynova, a mother protesting outside a school in the Mashtaga district of the capital, on Tuesday. In an interview with Meydan TV, an independent Azerbaijani-language channel based in Germany, her husband Agha claimed she was given a warning: "Either you take off your child's hijab and send them to school, or you go to prison."
Concerns have also been raised about activist Ilkin Huseynov, who launched an online platform called "Let Leyli Go to School" on Tuesday, offering free lessons from volunteer teachers to pupils barred from class. According to a friend, Mr Huseynov left his home in Baku with unidentified men on Wednesday afternoon, and his phone has been switched off since. The authorities have not commented, but friends believe he has been detained. By Thursday, the platform's Instagram page was inaccessible.
Since the protests began, users in Azerbaijan have reported problems accessing social media platforms Instagram and TikTok without a virtual private network (VPN).
Most protests have been concentrated in religiously conservative neighbourhoods in Baku's outlying settlements and in southern districts situated near the 765km (475-mile) border with Iran. Azerbaijani authorities have historically been wary of religious influence emanating from Iran, where a larger population of ethnic Azerbaijanis resides than in Azerbaijan itself.
On the night of 13 October, Azerbaijan's State Service for Special Communications and Information Security announced that a "foreign hacker group" had attacked more than 100 state websites. A pro-Iranian group identifying itself as the 313 Team (Cyber Islamic Resistance) claimed responsibility for the cyber-attacks.
Azerbaijani officials have defended the uniform regulations. MP Nigar Arpadarai told the 1news.az website that children do not choose to wear the hijab themselves but are influenced by their families. "A child has no freedom to choose a religion. This is a conscious prerogative of adults," she stated.
The controversy has extended to Turkey, Baku's closest ally, which provided vital support during Azerbaijan's 2020 conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. The two countries frequently describe themselves as "one nation, two states."
However, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a devout Muslim who has publicly spoken of fostering a "pious generation," has seen his administration's officials criticise the Azerbaijani policy. His chief adviser, Oktay Saral, called the restrictions "unacceptable" on X (formerly Twitter) and urged Baku to "reverse this mistake," adding: "A headscarf is not an obstacle; it is a requirement of one's faith!" Several MPs from Turkey's governing AK Party echoed these sentiments.
Small demonstrations organised by the Islamist movement Köklü Değişim, linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir, were held outside Azerbaijan's embassy in Ankara. A conservative Islamist group, Özgür-Der, organised a similar protest outside the Azerbaijani consulate in Istanbul.
In response, President Aliyev's New Azerbaijan Party accused Turkish officials of an "openly defamatory" information campaign and of making "baseless accusations." The party warned that Oktay Saral's comments risked harming bilateral ties and cautioned against interference in Azerbaijan's internal affairs. Earlier this month, President Aliyev had himself stated that no one should "stick their noses into our way of life."
Underlying the immediate dispute, another potential source of friction may exist. Some Turkish protesters have linked the headscarf rules to Azerbaijan's close ties with Israel, which supplies weapons to Baku and purchases Azerbaijani oil. Turkey's relations with Israel have significantly deteriorated following recent events in Gaza, while Azerbaijan has sought to maintain relationships with both countries.
This complex balancing act was underscored on Thursday when delegations from Turkey, Iran, and other countries reportedly walked out of a regional security summit hosted by Azerbaijan in Baku as Israeli President Isaac Herzog began his address.
