Tajikistan\'s Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) condemned on 28 October a recent decision by the country\'s Education Ministry forbidding female students from attending educational institutions while wearing a head scarf and a government ban at mosques for children under the age of 16. The authorities have justified the decisions as necessary steps to safeguard education in a secular society. But the IRP blasted the moves as an infringement on religious freedom and an attempt to foist the views of a single group on all of Tajik society. In a statement, the IRP said: \"At a time when thousands of children and teenagers are, instead of attending school, occupied with hard physical labor such as harvesting cotton, pushing carts, and washing cars, another segment spends most of its time in dance clubs and bars. It seems that the Education Ministry wants to blame its deficiencies on others, which suggests incompetence on the part of ministry officials.\" (Avesta)