Indonesia’s mandatory hijab ban is a triumph for women

Last week, Indonesia banned schools across the country from forcing girls to wear the hijab, after the parents of a 16-year-old Christian schoolgirl uploaded a video of their daughter being forced to wear the headscarf in Padang, in West Sumatra. According to the Education Minister, schools that now fail to comply with the order will face sanctions.

Before the ban, around 20 of Indonesia’s 34 provinces had mandated religious attire for female students and teachers in public schools. Millions of women in Indonesia, including non-Muslim minorities, have had to wear the hijab, with those who refuse facing intimidation and the possibility of expulsion. Public schools in Indonesia have now been given a month to change their policies.

The culture of Islamic modesty has its modern roots in the 1980s, when a Saudi-Iranian rivalry over their respective brands of orthodox Islam swept across the Muslim world. In more recent times, populist Muslim leaders like Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mahathir Mohamed and Imran Khan have upped the ante, and endorsed medieval sexist values further exacerbating gender disparity in the Muslim world.