ASTRAKHAN, June 21 (RIA Novosti) - “Explicitly religious” clothes and symbols will be banned in schools and universities of South Russia’s Astrakhan Region starting from September 1, the region’s governor said on Friday.
“Starting from September 1, there will be no off-standard clothes in schools and other educational facilities in the region. Make it clear to all ethnic groups, especially those who are prone to it. This is an order and may not be debated,” Astrakhan Region Governor Alexander Zhilkin said at a meeting of the regional council for issues of ethnicity and religion.
“We must not forget that we are a secular state, and we will follow this path, no matter how certain groups try to unravel this system, both for reasons of ethnicity and religion. Those who oppose this idea are free to choose from a plenty of other countries to live in,” Zhilkin added.
According to a 2012 census, 46 percent of the region’s population are Russian Orthodox believers, 14 percent are Muslims, six percent are atheists, while the remaining follow other religious or gave no answer.
The governor described his region with a “house made of glass,” full of people who are throwing stones at its fragile walls. The official said that sometimes radical views are being imposed on young people under the guise of religious teaching, though he avoided mentioning any specific religion or organization.
“They start by professing their own views of everyday clothing, especially for women. Boys and girls are being dumbed down and subsequently dragged into criminal organizations. And then their parents get their corpses,” he said.
In early May, the region’s law-enforcers announced they had detained seven members of an undisclosed extremist organization, who “spread the ideas of ‘global jihad’ among Astrakhan Region residents, and publicly called for terrorist activities, thus recruiting new members.” The detainees, some of them minors, were in possession of TNT, cartridges for a Kalashnikov assault rifle and literature of an extremist nature.
Last year, another southern Russian region, the Stavropol Territory, banned students from wearing all types of religious symbols and headdresses in school, as well as brightly colored clothes, veils, pants and skirts with a low waistline or high slits, and accessories depicting informal youth group symbols.
