DUSHANBE, August 21, Asia-Plus — Shuhrat Qudratov, the defense layer of female student suing the education ministry over the headscarf ban, said in an interview with Asia-Plus that his client will probably not be able to continue studying in new academic year.
“On August 20, a court in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour district ruled to reject complaint lodge by us about a trial minute,” said the defense lawyer, “The judge dismissed the case on grounds that that action was allegedly brought too late.” “But the point is that I have a copy of our statement of claim dated July 20, the day when the claim was launched and I intend to prove our case.”
“On August 21, we applied to the court requesting for restoring the date of claim,” Qudratov said.
He noted that the new academic year is nearing, but his client who had prevented from passing summer term’s exams, is deprived again of an opportunity to continue studies.
We will recall that Dushanbe’s Shohmansour district court on July 12 rejected a lawsuit filed Davlatmo Ismoilova, a 20-year-old female student, against the Education Ministry and the Institute of languages ban on Islamic-style. Known as hejab, on campuses. Issuing his verdict, the presiding judge said Davlatmo Ismoilova”s lawsuit has no legal basis.
Ismoilova responded to the decision with a vow to exhaust the legal channels to allow her wearing the hejab.
Consideration of a lawsuit filed by Davlatmo Ismoilova was supposed to be considered in a city court in Dushanbe on July 31, but it was postponed to another day.
Ismoilova’s defense lawyer Shuhrat Qudratov told journalists that consideration of the lawsuit had been postponed because a district court in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour district had not considered a complaint lodged by him on the trial minute. According to him, Mukhtor Isoyev, a judge with the Dushanbe city court, ordered the court of lower instance to consider the lawyer complaint, add it to the case and send the case to the city court.
The case is Tajikistan”s first reported legal challenge to the ban passed earlier this year on Islamic headscarves.
