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Students rally to expose the appeal of the hijab

Jakarta Post - September 5, 2007

Some 300 university students, grouped under the Campus Islamic Preaching Council (LDK), stage a peaceful rally to mark the International Hijab Solidarity Day in Semarang, the capital of Central Java, on Tuesday.

The students distributed flowers to the public during the rally, which was held to express their solidarity with Muslim women facing bans on the hijab in countries around the world. The students also gave free hijabs to visitors to their post in front of the Baiturrahman Mosque near the Simpanglima traffic circle.

Rally coordinator Lulu Jamaliah said she was concerned that most Indonesian Muslim women were unenthusiastic about the annual solidarity rally, adding that she hoped more student activists would be interested in promoting the event.

The International Hijab Solidarity day was declared during a conference of the Assembly for the Protection of Hijab held on July 12, 2004, in London. The conference, attended by some 300 delegates from 102 British and international organizations, was opened by London Mayor Ken Livingstone. Livingstone is known as a staunch advocate of the rights of Muslims and other minority groups in Britain. Also attending the meeting were noted Muslim figures Sheikh Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi and Prof. Tariq Ramadan. The conference declared Sept. 4 as International Hijab Solidarity Day.

The conference was inspired by a ban on Muslim clothing in French schools, which triggered Muslim anger around the world. Waves of protest condemning then French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's decision to ban the hijab swept countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia in 2004.

The Assembly for the Protection of Hijab's website says the organization's mission is to campaign nationally and internationally for the protection of Muslim women's right to wear the hijab in accordance with their beliefs.

Among the alliance's goals are: bringing an end to hijab bans wherever they have been imposed; preventing the spread of such bans; and liberating Muslim women from racial, religious and gender discrimination.