'It's just plain bias, intolerance and prejudice': Nigerian Muslim women's hijabs and niqabs 'forcefully pulled off' at universities and schools

“When I arrived at the entrance, she checked my ID and my course form, inspected my photographs, and asked to see my face. I refused to take off my veil in the presence of the men around, but before I could say anything further, she yanked off my niqab," Bintu*, a biology student at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria, tells The New Arab.

Her experience is one being faced by a number of Nigerian women in the country, as their universities begin to pressurise them into removing their head and face coverings. 

"It was so unexpected," Bintu adds. "I felt so sad and was worried about who had seen my face." 

Many of these Nigerian female Muslim students feel victimised, sharing their stories of dehumanising experiences for merely wearing their hijabs or for covering their faces, and like Bintu, thousands say they have endured embarrassing episodes for practising their religion.

"We still have some public institutions where either the hijab is not allowed at all or the hijab is allowed but the niqab is not allowed… We still have nursing schools that do not allow the hijab at all. All of this is just pure abuse of the fundamental human right of Nigerian Muslim women"

Bintu, then 19, was entering the examination hall to write her first computer-based test as a university student. “I noticed the lady at the entrance was denying niqabis (females wearing the face veil) from entering the exam hall and I was wondering why. When she asked me to reveal my face, I was shocked." 

After her face covering was pulled off her face, she was told by others in the hall that many, including the men in the room, had seen her face. “I was just so sad. When I got to the mosque, I was sobbing so hard," Bintu explained. 

Nigeria is one of the largest Muslim populous countries in West Africa, with around 49% of the county’s population being Muslim. But despite this, there are still limits to how female Muslim students can express their religious rights in schools, even though the minister of education, Adamu Adamu, has expressively insisted that female Muslim students should be free to wear their hijab in schools.

According to the contravention provided by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, Section 38, article (i) and (ii) says that:

“Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others; and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”

The constitution only states the right of Nigerian citizens to perform their religions freely, it does not protect them from harm that surrounds it.

Precedent happenings

This is precedent and strewn into the veins of the structure of Nigeria. It spans out of the university system alone and stains across levels of education in the country. 

On 12 December 2017, Amasa Firdaus Abdulsalam was denied entrance into the International Conference Centre in Abuja for wearing her peruke – the Barrister wig – on top of her hijab. She was due to be called to the bar after completing her studies at the Nigerian Law School with the rest of her classmates but had to wait seven months and after juggling various court sessions before she was finally called to the bar.

"The hijab is just a piece of cloth that a woman wraps around herself and it doesn’t affect other people in any way. It is just plain bias, intolerance and prejudice"

On 18 November 2021, a professor was reported to have asked a fully veil-dressed student to remove her niqab at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology. Due to the severity of the claim, the school management had promised to carefully address the issue, but it was never properly pursued. 

Haleemah Oladamade Ahmad, a senior associate researcher at the Da'wah Institute, mentioned that a lot of factors contribute to the challenges Muslim women face in Nigeria. The first factor is simply the abuse of power and authority and a sense of lawlessness and impunity that people in the education system exhibit.

“It doesn’t only happen in private institutions, it happens in public institutions which really should be for everybody,” Haleemah told The New Arab. “They believe they can do and undo and there are no consequences."

The second factor is the lack of protection for the fundamental human right of Muslim women. “Because (using) the hijab is not only a divine obligation on Muslim women, it is also a constitutionally granted right. But unfortunately, this appears to be just on paper in Nigeria," she added. 

"We still have some public institutions where either the hijab is not allowed at all or the hijab is allowed but the niqab is not allowed… We still have nursing schools that do not allow the hijab at all. All of this is just pure abuse of the fundamental human right of Nigerian Muslim women.

“I mean, the hijab is just a piece of cloth that a woman wraps around herself and it doesn’t affect other people in any way. It is just plain bias, intolerance and prejudice. [Some] people don’t realise the importance and benefit of diversity and inclusions in our society,” Haleemah said.

There are Islamic organisations that are fighting against this injustice in Nigeria such as the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Islamic World Foundation, The Hijab Rights Advocacy, the Standard Bearers Organisation, Al-Muminat, and others.

But there is still a systemic injustice that they have to struggle against which waters down their efforts. “If every right was upheld in the first place, there would not be a need for these organisations, Haleemah explained. "Having and needing these organisations is already a reflection of injustice that we have in our society that needs to stop."

*Identity concealed for security reasons.

Ahmad Adedimeji Amobi is a Nigerian journalist and a columnist at the Daily Trust. His work has appeared in the Sahelien, Popula, Critical Muslim, Brittle Paper, Litro UK, Voyage YA Journal and elsewhere.

Follow him on Twitter: @ahmad_adedimeji