Baku accused Tehran after inviting schoolgirls in hijabs to study in Iran.
The Ministry of Science and Education of Azerbaijan deemed the invitation of Iranian Minister of Science, Research and Technology Hossein Simayi Sarraf to Azerbaijani girls facing restrictions due to wearing hijabs in schools to continue their education in Iran inappropriate. This statement was interpreted in Baku as interference in the internal affairs of the country.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot", Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref called on Azerbaijani girls and women facing restrictions on wearing hijabs in their country to continue their education in Iran, according to the Mehr agency citing the politician's post on social media X. Aref thanked the Ministry of Science for the statement about the readiness of Iranian universities to accept Azerbaijani girls wearing hijabs.
Since October 12, school leaders in Azerbaijan have not allowed teachers and schoolgirls who refused to remove their hijabs to attend classes. In several schools in Baku, students and teachers held lessons outside in protest. On October 13, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported the detention of 37 protest participants, while activists counted over 200 detained. Protests due to the exclusion of children and female teachers from classes have become a continuation of a long-standing dispute over religious clothing in schools, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Protests over school dress code in Azerbaijan".
The Ministry of Science and Education of Azerbaijan reacted to the statement of the head of the relevant agency in Iran that Azerbaijani students in hijabs could continue their education in his country due to the ban in their homeland.
Iran's Minister of Science, Research and Technology Hossein Simayi Sarraf invited girls from Azerbaijan facing restrictions due to wearing hijabs to continue their education in Iranian universities. According to the Iranian news agency Tasnim, in a video address on October 22, he stated Iran's readiness to create conditions for girls to receive education, who, according to him, are forced to give up their religious hijabs.
The Ministry of Science and Education of Azerbaijan called the statement made by Iran's Minister of Science, Research and Technology Hossein Simayi Sarraf "inappropriate" and regarded it as "interference in the internal affairs" of the country. "No one is allowed to interfere in the internal affairs of our country, including education policy, and such attempts are firmly suppressed," the ministry stated, urging Iranian officials to focus on the problems of their own country.
The agency also stated that there are no schools or universities in Iran where education is conducted in the Azerbaijani language, despite the ministry's estimate that about 40 million residents of the country are ethnic Azerbaijanis.
"For decades, they have been deprived of the right to receive education in their native language," the statement said. The Azerbaijani ministry urged Iranian authorities to take measures to address this issue instead of commenting on Azerbaijan's internal policy.
An employee of the Azerbaijani analytical service Turan, Tapdyg Farhadoglu, also described the statements of the Iranian minister and other Iranian politicians and officials about Azerbaijani students being able to study in Iran as attempts to discredit the secular Azerbaijani state in the eyes of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Iran.
"If they cared about the education of Azerbaijanis, they would first open schools for teaching in the native language to citizens of their country of Azerbaijani nationality." On the other hand, even if hypothetically someone wanted to study in Iran, it is practically impossible because Azerbaijani citizens do not speak Persian. Moreover, Farhadoglu continued, no reasonable parent would send their child to a country where a new war could start at any moment," said Farhadoglu.
He noted that Azerbaijan also reacted negatively to criticism of the hijab restrictions in Azerbaijan coming from allied Turkey.