Muslim health workers challenge Sri Lankan hospital over hijab ban
Nine Muslim health workers say government hospital barred them from wearing hijabs, prompting human rights complaints and legal action
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (MNTV) — Nine Muslim health workers in Sri Lanka have filed complaints with the country’s human rights commission after a government hospital barred them from wearing hijabs while on duty, prompting calls for nationwide rules protecting religious attire in public-sector workplaces.
The dispute began at Kalmunai North Base Hospital in the eastern Ampara district, where the newly appointed workers were allegedly told to remove their hijabs before beginning their shifts Aug. 10.
The women argue that forcing them to choose between their religious dress and their jobs violates their constitutionally protected freedom of religion.
Their lawyer, Mubarack Azzam, said five complaints have been filed with the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka on behalf of the nine workers. Preparations are also underway to petition the Supreme Court over the alleged violation of their fundamental rights.
The hospital has defended the restriction as enforcement of existing uniform requirements rather than religious discrimination. Hospital Chairman Chandrasekaram Rajan said guidelines introduced in 2000 establish uniform standards for health workers and apply regardless of ethnicity, religion, caste or language.
But the controversy extends beyond a disagreement over uniforms at a single hospital.
Muslim women in Sri Lanka have repeatedly encountered objections to Islamic religious clothing in schools, government institutions and public-sector workplaces, leaving the absence of a clear nationwide policy vulnerable to differing interpretations by individual institutions.
Rights activists have now petitioned President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to establish a single national policy governing the wearing of hijabs across public services and institutions.
Sri Lanka’s Health Ministry has also stepped in, signaling that the existing approach may need to change.
Following discussions Tuesday, the ministry said it would pursue an immediate solution for the current dispute and develop a permanent policy for Muslim women working at hospitals elsewhere in the country.
The confrontation comes against a longer history of Muslim women’s clothing becoming a target of political and institutional scrutiny in Sri Lanka.
Muslims, who constitute roughly a tenth of the country’s 22 million people, have faced recurring disputes over religious attire in schools, workplaces and government institutions.
Such restrictions have unfolded alongside a broader wave of anti-Muslim Buddhist nationalism that intensified during the previous decade.
Campaigns targeting halal certification and Islamic clothing helped create an increasingly hostile environment for the minority, with anti-Muslim mobilisation eventually spilling into attacks on mosques, businesses and homes in 2014.
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