Lagos lifts school hijab ban

Girls in the Nigerian state of Lagos are now allowed to wear a hijab to school, the authorities have said.

The Muslim headscarf has been at the centre of a row in the state since 2014 when a Lagos high court banned them in schools.

The decision was overturned on appeal two years later, but the state then took the case to the Supreme Court and did not lift the ban at school, the Daily Trust reports.

In a circular, the state government said it would now allow girls to wear hijabs pending the Supreme Court ruling.

It stipulated that a student’s hijbab had to be “short, smart, neat and in the same colour of the uniform”.

"No student should be discriminated against in any form on the basis of religion," it added.