Azernews.Az

A group of believers have protested against Azerbaijan in the Iranian city of Astara over the veil ban in the neighboring country’s schools and the recent jail sentences pronounced to Azerbaijan Islamic Party (AIP) leaders, reports say.

The protesters, taking to the streets on Monday following the afternoon prayer upon a call from their clerical leader, chanted anti-Azerbaijan slogans, claiming the veil ban was introduced under "a plan of the Israeli regime" and that "its main mastermind is damned America".

There is no explicit ban on the wearing of headscarves in schools, but the Education Ministry last year introduced a standard school uniform that precludes traditional Islamic dress.

Azerbaijan Islamic Party leader Haji Movsum Samadov and his several inferiors were convicted by a Baku court last Friday to between 10 and 12 years in prison on charges of attempts to set up a criminal group to plan terror attacks and to overthrow the government.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan Islamic Party asked the mayor’s office of Baku for authorization to hold a protest on October 22. AIP’s acting chairman, Haji Elchin Manafov, said the protesters will denounce what he called instances of Islamic phobia in Azerbaijan and demand a release of the convicted party leaders.

Manafov told the Baku-based APA news agency that AIP was keen on holding the protest.

"Certainly, we will have a discussion after the authorities give us a reply. But in any case, we expect that no obstacles will be posed by the city’s executive authorities [for the protest] and plan to conduct an authorized rally."

Manafov added that AIP was not against opposition parties’ joining the protest.