• Sri Lankan officials withheld exam results from 70 Muslim women, citing their hijabs obscured their ears, violating religious freedom.
• The girls adjusted their hijabs to comply, yet their results were withheld, jeopardising their education. This incident reflects broader anti-Muslim measures in Sri Lanka.
Government officials in Sri Lanka are withholding exam results from 70 Muslim women and girls due to allegations that their hijabs obscured their ears during examinations. This decision violates the students’ freedom of religion and exacerbates the prevalent discrimination faced by Muslims in Sri Lanka.
The students, predominantly from low-income families near Trincomalee in the eastern region, took their A-level exams in January. Instead of draping their hijabs normally, they were pressurised into wearing loose, “transparent” white shawls to cover their heads, in order to comply with “regulations” that require candidates’ ears to be visible to “prevent cheating.” Despite the supervision allowing the exams to proceed, the Department of Examination determined that the students wore hijabs, which authorities said could conceal Bluetooth earpieces. Consequently, their results were withheld on May 31 while other students received theirs, jeopardising their chances for higher education.
This was clearly never about Bluetooth earpieces. It was a pretext to target and discriminate against Muslims.
Moreover, this incident serves as a crucial lesson: we must never alter any aspect of our religious practices, including the way we wear our hijabs, in order to appease others.
Previous disputes in Trincomalee over Muslim attire in education settings underscore ongoing challenges. While similar incidents have not been reported elsewhere in Sri Lanka among Muslim A-level candidates, 13 women sitting a teachers’ exam in Colombo encountered a comparable issue in 2023.
In recent years, Sri Lanka has consistently imposed discriminatory regulations against its Muslim minority. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the government prohibited the burial of individuals presumed to have died from the virus, disregarding Muslim customs that mandate burial instead of cremation. Anti-Muslim violence, often fuelled by baseless allegations propagated by officials and their supporters, has also been distressingly recurrent.
Sri Lanka already enforces rigorous searches of all exam candidates upon entry. Denying these students their A-level results will inflict significant harm, contradicting government assertions of fostering harmony and reconciliation among communities.
