The management of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), has banned niqob “for security reasons”.
This was seen on a billboard erected in the university on Tuesday.
Earlier (Monday, October 15), the university authorities in a billboard categorised niqob, as well as, crazy jeans, mini-skirts and chest-exposing tops as “immoral and lousy dressing”. The billboard was eventually removed after complaints from different quarters.
In the latest developmet, the niqob alongside motorcycles (Okada) and vehicles with tinted glasses was banned “for security reasons”.
Earlier, the Director of Muslim Rights Concern, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, advised Muslim students using niqab in the FUNAAB to delay its usage till they graduate.
He said, “Apart from the security angle, niqab may constitute other challenges in a non-Islamic state. But while there is nothing wrong for a lady in the private sector to use it, questions will definitely arise whenever it is used by a civil servant, factory worker, or a student in a higher institution.
“I therefore call on MSS leaders to admonish sisters using the niqab in institutions of higher learning. They should advise them to delay its use until after their graduation since hijab is allowed.
“Sisters should realise that although we are in the majority, we Muslims are educationally disadvantaged. We need more female Muslim graduates but the issue of niqab may reduce our chances of producing as many as possible.”
