Jakarta, NU Online
General Chairman of the Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) KH Said Aqil Siradj, well known as Kang Said, urged police to allow female police officers to wear jilbab (headscarf).<>

"We call on police to soon make special rules with respect to the presence of female police officers that wear jilbab," Kang Said told NU Online hereon Friday (14/6), saying that banning Muslim women from wearing jilbal was a human rights violation.

The chairman of the Islamic Institute of Friendship Organizations (LPOI) said that wearing jilbab for Muslim women was in line with the teachings of Islam and primarily intended to protect themselves from any lustful gaze or or act that may expose them to temptation or harassment of any kind.

"In the UK, female police officers are allowed to wear jilbab, how could Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country ban female police officers from wearing jilbab," he said.

Under a 2005 regulation, uniformed female police officers are not allowed to wear a jilbab because it restricts their peripheral vision and mobility and is thus seen as hampering their performance.

However, plainclothes officers are allowed to wear a jilbab, while all Muslim female police officers in Aceh province, which observes Shariah law, are required to wear the head covering.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq