Elham Asaad Buaras
Nigeria’s Court of Appeal in Ibadan has overturned a High Court judgment allowing female Muslim students to wear the hijab at the International School of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s oldest and most prestigious university.
The ruling, delivered on July 3 by Justice Biobele Georgewill, with Justice K.I. Amadi concurring, set aside the May 22, 2024, decision of the Oyo State High Court, which had found in favour of 11 Muslim students who challenged the school’s ban on the hijab.
The dispute began in 2018, when the University of Ibadan International School prohibited female Muslim students from wearing headscarves as part of the school uniform. Supported by the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), the students filed a lawsuit against the University, the school, its Deputy Vice-Chancellor, who also serves as Chair of governors, and the school’s principal, Phebean Olowe, arguing that the policy violated their constitutional rights to freedom of religion and protection from discrimination.
The legal battle has spanned several years. In 2019, Justice Ladiran Akintola of the Oyo State High Court dismissed the students’ human rights suit challenging the school’s policy. The matter later returned to the High Court before Justice Moshood Ishola, who ruled on May 22, 2024, that ISI was a public institution and that the ban infringed the students’ constitutional rights to freedom of religion and freedom from discrimination. The school authorities appealed that decision.
The Court of Appeal found that the International School is a private institution rather than a public one. Justice Georgewill ruled that an earlier Supreme Court decision concerning the wearing of the hijab in public schools in Lagos State applied only to public schools and could not be extended to private educational institutions.
He further held that the right to practise one’s religion is a personal right that may be voluntarily waived. According to the court, the students had effectively agreed to limit the exercise of that right by signing an undertaking to comply with the school’s rules and regulations, including its prescribed dress code.
“For public schools, students may wear the hijab over the school uniform based on the Supreme Court judgment. However, the Supreme Court has not made any decision regarding the use of the hijab in private schools,” Justice Georgewill said.
Justice Fadawu Umar, in a dissenting judgment, maintained that the appeal lacked merit and argued that the High Court’s decision should have been upheld.
The majority ruling reinstates the school’s ban on the hijab, which will remain in force unless the decision is overturned by Nigeria’s Supreme Court.
