Uzbek cleric rejects hijab as “foreign influence”
More evidence that Islam does not require women to wear the hijab.
An Uzbek cleric is urging women not to wear the Muslim hijab, or head scarf, as the number of women wearing religious dress has significantly increased in Uzbekistan, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reports.
Anvar Qori Tursunov, the imam of Tashkent’s Central Mosque, told women to return to their national dress and to keep a distance from “foreign influences.” Tursunov said on Uzbek state TV that “Foreign clothes will bring foreign ideology, which is dangerous for Uzbekistan.”
Tajikistan’s Council of Islamic Clerics said the same thing a few months ago.