Freedom of religion is recognized under the international bill of rights and the Ethiopian Constitution. The FDRE Constitution, particularly provided that the freedom of religion enshrined in the constitutions includes “the freedom, either individually or in community with others, and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice, and teaching.” This right to manifest one’s religion encompasses “the wearing of distinctive clothing or head coverings,” as General Comment 22 on Article 18 of the ICCPR provides. Thus, there is no doubt that wearing a hijab is part of religious freedom under the existing international and national human rights instruments. Yes, religious manifestations may be limited for the general public good. Limitations on human rights should, however, be justified by the objective to attain legitimate purposes. They should also be proportional and necessary to the needs of the goals and be sanctioned by law.
The usual excuses distractors forward are the need to preserve public culture, the need to maintain secularism, and public security needs, among others. For the cultural argument, having a headscarf is culturally accepted in the majority of the Ethiopian society irrespective of religion, and, even, until recently, brides used to wear veils for their wedding. The public security argument also doesn’t hold water, as hijab has never been an agenda in more sensitive areas like airports.
Finally, secularism in all its versions doesn’t mean calling for abandoning one’s belief unless it is taken as anti-religious secularism. Most of all, if there is a public cause for limiting the wearing of headscarves, it is not the business of individual teachers, school officials, even education bureaus, or the Ministry of Education. Constitutional rights may be limited by law, parliamentary act, or at least by regulation of the Council of Ministers. Village chiefs and line ministries may not limit constitutionally recognized rights through a directive or a circular.
Article 27(5) of the Constitution clearly provides that any limitation on the manifestation of religion should be prescribed by law. Federal Negarit Gazeta Establishment Proclamation No. 3/1995 provides that “all laws of the federal government shall be published in the Federal Negarit Gazeta.” Thus, directives and circulars issued by any organ of the government that are not always published under the Negarit Gazetta do not have the power to limit constitutionally guaranteed rights.
As wearing headscarves is a constitutionally guaranteed liberty that has never been legally limited in Ethiopia, a designed deprivation of such liberties constitutes violence against women. The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women defines violence against women as:
Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.
Similarly, the African Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa also defined violence against women as:
All acts perpetrated against women that cause or could cause them physical, sexual, psychological, and economic harm, including the threat to take such acts, or to undertake the imposition of arbitrary restrictions on or deprivation of fundamental freedoms in private or public life in peacetime and during situations of armed conflict or of war;
In both instruments, any measure that deprives or restricts the liberty of women constitutes violence against women. Thus, prohibitions on hijab in educational institutions are a clear form of violence against women. They are gender-based violence against Muslim girls with a deliberate intent to distract them from a hard-earned opportunity to learn.
