Bangkalan, Madura, Bangkalan – Bangkalan Legislative Council in East Java has urged all schools in the regency to oblige their female students to wear Islamic head scarves when they are in school.

"We ask all principals in all schools in Bangkalan, be it junior high or high schools, to oblige their female students to wear headscarves," councilor Sudarmo said on Tuesday as quoted by Antara news agency.

Sudarmo said Bangkalan regency was a "Santri City". "Santri" is a term for an Islamic student that implies piousness. He said Bangkalan residents were religious and the city had a lot of Islamic boarding schools.

He said the council had passed a bylaw with that specific mandate a year ago, but the implementation was not effective because many students were not wearing head scarves, commonly called jilbab in Indonesia. "We want all female students here to wear headscarves," he said.