By Francis Kagolo

MAKERERE University has banned students wearing head gear from entering examination rooms. The move, which authorities say is intended to prevent cheating, has mostly affected female Muslim students, who wear veils.

Yesterday, hundreds of Muslim students demonstrated against the policy, which they said was “an attack on the Muslim faith.”

Carrying placards reading “Accord Islam value, don’t undress our Muslim sisters,” and “If you want kimansulo (nudity), Angenoir is cheap”, the students marched from the university mosque to the main building, to petition the vice-chancellor.

However, they found the main building locked, with only the student’s dean, John Ekudu, peeping through the window.

The Makerere University Muslim Students’ Association chairman, Abdul Kim Lubega, said the Sharia law required women to cover their heads. Males also wear caps, especially during prayers.

Lubega said the ban had been enforced at the school of education and faculties of social sciences, arts and economics and management.

“We complained to the vice-chancellor but nothing was done,” Lubega told The New Vision.

In one of the letters addressed to the university Imam, Ahmed Ssentongo, Rashida Namaalo, a second-year education student, claimed that a lecturer, Rogers Kateregga, “undressed” her while she was writing her Theory of Comparative Education exam at the Institute of Languages last week.

“He told me to remove my veil and he placed it at the window. This affected me so much that I spent 30 minutes without writing anything.

“I was disorganised because I was violating the Islamic dress code,” Namaalo wrote in a letter copied to the deputy academic registrar.

Musa Abdu-Nuur Nkubi, a second-year economics student, also reported that a lecturer had last week forced him to remove his cap, while doing an exam.

But a senior examinations official said all students were not allowed to carry jackets, scarfs, sweaters and other “unnecessary” attires, including caps into exam rooms.

“It is not targeting the Muslim community. We are trying to reduce exam malpractices and maintain the authenticity of our academic transcripts,” said an official, who preferred anonymity on grounds that she wasn’t the official spokesperson.

The university publicist, Gilbert Kadilo, asked the students to be calm.

“Makerere University is a secular institution. There cannot be a policy targeting a certain religion.

“All we expect is that our students and members of staff should be decent.”