Claim: The Government of Punjab has made it mandatory for boys and girls to wear caps and scarves, respectively, in schools across the province.
Fact: Schoolchildren will only be required to wear caps and scarves when attending the classes reserved for Quran recitation and teaching.
On 17 January 2022, journalist Hasan Zaidi, Dawn’s editor for Magazines, shared an update on Twitter regarding an announcement by the Government of Punjab. The tweet — which stated, “Punjab Govt has mandated caps for schoolboys and scarves for schoolgirls” — was sent to Soch Fact Check for verification.
The tweet went viral and its content, word-for-word or along the same lines, was shared on Facebook as well. News outlets picked up the story shortly afterwards and shared visuals with seemingly incomplete information.
(L-R) Misleading headline run by The News; screenshot of a tweet wherein Twitter user @HarounRashid2 shared The News’ report; and screenshot of a tweet wherein journalist Hasan Zaidi shares a misleading update
Various reports carried headlines that suggested the change was to be implemented as an entirely new school dress code or was mandatory for all students regardless of their religious affiliation.
Fact or fiction?
Soch Fact Check found the claim that the Punjab government has made wearing caps and scarves mandatory in schools across the province to be misleading.
Punjab Education Minister Dr Murad Raas on 17 January 2022 conducted a press conference to update the public on possible school closures amid the latest COVID-19 wave. Dr Raas also spoke about changes to be implemented in light of the recently-passed Punjab Compulsory Teaching of the Holy Quran Act 2018, which made the teaching of the Holy Quran with translation compulsory for schools.
The provincial minister conveyed his “request” to private schools to make skullcaps and headscarves mandatory for boys and girls in order to ensure the requirement to cover one’s head while reciting the Quran is met. Video of Dr Raas discussing this matter can be found on the YouTube channels of City 42 and GNN at the 2:47 and 2:48 marks, respectively.
However, the Punjab chief minister’s focal person, Azhar Mashwani, clarified Raas’s statement, explaining that caps and scarves “will be made part of the uniform” only for periods reserved for Quran recitation. Mashwani also made clear in the statement that the policy applies only to Muslim students and will of course not apply to students from other religious communities.
Speaking to Soch Fact Check, Mashwani confirmed that he posted the tweet “after confirmation from [the] Minister School Education and School Education Department”.
سکولوں میں بچے بچیوں کےلیے ٹوپی/سکارف “لازمی” کرنے کی خبر غلط ہے۔
مسلمان بچوں کے لیے پرائمری سکول میں ناظرہ قران پاک کی تعلیم لازمی قرار دی گئی ہے۔
اس پیریڈ کےلیے بچوں کے لیے ٹوپی اور سکارف کو یونیفارم کا حصہ بنایا جائےگا-باقی پیریڈز میں ٹوپی یا سکارف پہننا لازمی نہیں ہو گا-
— Azhar Mashwani (@MashwaniAzhar) January 18, 2022
Dr Raas has not issued any order or directive nor has the Punjab government approved any regulation that makes it mandatory for schoolchildren to wear caps and scarves throughout the school day.
Virality
According to a CrowdTangle analysis, over the past 30 days, the search term “Punjab caps scarves school” featured in at least eight Facebook posts that received close to 700 interactions. In the same period, seven Instagram posts containing the search term or some part of it garnered over 12,000 interactions.
The search term “caps boys dupatta girls punjab school” turned up one Instagram post that received more than 3,000 interactions. Meanwhile, the search term “پنجاب ٹوپی دوپٹہ اسکول” revealed over 2,300 interactions across 10 posts on Facebook.
Several misleading headlines have been circulating on social media, including the following:
- Caps for boys, dupatta for girls: Punjab announces new school dress code
- Murad Raas wants Punjab’s private schools to add dupattas, caps to school uniform
- Murad Raas has announced a New School Dress Code that includes Caps for Boys and Dupattas for Girls
- Punjab Education Minister Makes New School Dress Code Mandatory: Boys In Caps And Girls In Head Scarves
- Murad Raas instructs private schools to make “dupattas” and “topis” mandatory for all students
Of the leading news outlets of Pakistan, Geo News initially reported on Dr Raas’ request to private schools but did not include Mashwani’s clarification in its story; however, details of the clarification were included in the edited version of Geo News’ Facebook post about the news.
Geo News included Mashwani’s clarification in the edited version of the post on its Facebook page but did not include the clarification in its story
Its sister publication, The News, also ran a misleading story, in which it said the minister had “ordered” schools to make it obligatory. Tech and business news platform ProPakistani also published a misleading story. Screenshots of The News’ report, along with a tweet in which the report was shared, were also posted by numerous Facebook users. Moreover, the same report was duplicated on other websites, such as Shafaqna, Pakistan.on-24, Pakistan Times Today, and News 24 PK, while the Blog 101 published it after replacing key words with synonyms.
Urdu-language outlets — including Daily Jang, Daily Ausaf, Daily Manzar, Pakistan News International, Islam Times, Nawaiwaqt, and Naya Time — also ran stories with misleading headlines. Posts by Facebook pages ‘Billboard Pakistan’ and ‘FHM Pakistan’, which reported on a celebrity’s reaction to the news, included misleading captions.
Similar comments and proposals by ministers and officials have also made headlines in the past. Last year, the Federal Directorate of Education issued a dress code for teachers, while, in 2017, PML-N’s Syed Raza Ali Gilani, then the minister of higher education in Punjab, had suggested making the hijab mandatory in the province’s colleges.
Conclusion: The claim that scarves and caps are made mandatory in Punjab’s schools is misleading. The provincial minister’s request to private schools to make caps and scarves mandatory applies only to Muslim students attending the Quran recitation and teaching classes.