Malawi’s Supreme Court has decided to lift the 10-year ban on dreadlocks for school-age children. It has been reported Guard.
This means that about 1,200 children from families who profess Rastafarianism, where it is customary to wear such hairstyles, can receive an education.
After the decision, nearly 7,000 schools in Malawi received letters explaining that expelling children with dreadlocks violates the Constitution. The country’s Ministry of Education has received an order that children from Rastafarian families must return to school by June 30.
Ezayus Mkandavire, head of the Rastafarian community in Malawi, whose three children were deprived of the opportunity to study, fought for several years to abolish the requirement that all children be shortened in schools. Many Rastafarian families are now seeking compensation from the state for their children being harmed by “archaic policies” that make rasta curls unhygienic.
Previously reportedthat a teacher in the suburbs hit a female student in the face of her hair.