On a cold Wednesday night, unknown arsonists torched an office belonging to a Catholic school headteacher. The unidentified individuals burnt the headteacher’s office to ashes. The incident occurred at Mpiri primary school in Malawi’s eastern district of Machinga.
Enraged Muslim Community Burn Headteacher’s Office
Members of the Muslim community in the eastern district of Machinga were suspected of setting fire to the office. The unknown community members committed the crime after discovering the school’s headteacher had refused to allow female pupils to attend class in hijabs.
When the school reopened, the headteacher sent several girls home for putting on the hijab. When the student’s parents came to the school to seek clarification, some unknown youth allegedly assigned to the headteacher fought the parents. The unidentified youth also forcibly asked female pupils to remove their hijabs.
When news about the misunderstanding over the wearing of hijabs broke out, they enraged the Muslim community. Wrangles between Christians and Muslims erupted in the Eastern region. Although religious conflicts are rare in Malawi, a string of clashes flared up in the country’s east in a short while.
Eastern Region of Malawi
The population in the eastern region of Malawi is evenly distributed between Muslims and Christians. Machinga town, however, has one of the largest Muslim communities in Malawi. To try and ensure children acquire education, Anglican and Catholic churches have built schools. As a result, most schools in Machinga are owned by the Anglican and Catholic churches.
The Government of Malawi does not prescribe a school dress code for any institution in the country. Some Christian schools, however, insist that learners attending their institutions do not wear hijabs. Because of this decision, several religious clashes have erupted over the years, particularly in Malawi’s predominantly Muslim eastern region.
Past Cases in the Eastern Region
One such past case involved Mmanga primary in Bakala run by Anglicans. The Anglican administrators restricted the wearing of Hijabs, similar to what happened at Mpiri primary school. The school told parents that they didn’t encourage selective education and instead wanted to promote equality among pupils. The institution stated that the wearing of Hijabs was hindering the accomplishment of this goal. This resulted in Muslims and Christians exchanging blows and the school’s closure.
Headteacher`s Staff Transferred
Due to the recent misunderstanding at the Mpiri primary school in Machinga, the school was closed. So far, the institution has remained temporarily closed for two weeks. Additionally, the Muslim communities living in the eastern area asked for the transfer of the headteacher.
The Machinga District Education manager, Makina Gama, confirmed that the headteacher had been transferred elsewhere. Some 28 teachers had also been transferred from the school for their safety.
Felix Masamba, the Education coordinator for Mangichi Diocese Education Commission, reported just a suspension of classes at Mpiri primary. Masamba added that if the tensions continued, they would have to close their schools in the eastern region. The Education Coordinator did not say how much had been lost to the fire. However, he stated that the police were investigating who was behind the fire.
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