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Nothing wrong with university ads featuring hijab-clad students: Expert
Universities in Yogyakarta with billboards featuring hijab-clad students do not violate ethical codes of advertising, a communications expert has said.
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Growing intolerance: A billboard featuring a female student wearing a hijab stands at Sanata Dharma Catholic University in Yogyakarta. The Muslim People’s Forum (FUI) in the city recently forced Duta Wacana Christian University to take down a similar billboard, claiming it could mislead Muslim students. (JP/Tarko Sudiarno)
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niversities in Yogyakarta with billboards featuring hijab-clad students do not violate ethical codes of advertising, a communications expert has said.
"A hijab-clad student featured in the Duta Wacana Christian University [UKDW] admission ad in fact aims to show the spirit of multiculturalism," Gadjah Mada University communications lecturer Pulung S. Perbawani told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Pulung was asked to respond to the demands of hard-line group the Muslim People’s Forum (FUI), which called on the university to take down the billboards, claiming the ad might be misleading for Muslim students considering enrolling in the university.
Pulung said through such ads, universities wanted to communicate that educational institutions did not subscribe to favoritism based on ethnicity, race or religion.
"UKDW is definitely not the first to make such an ad. Some universities in the US and Britain also display ads using hijab-clad models to emphasize that they embrace multiculturalism," she asserted.
In Yogyakarta, aside from UKDW, Sanata Dharma University and Atma Jaya, both managed by Catholic foundations, also have similar ads.
UKDW rector Henry Feriadi said many of the university’s students were Muslims.
“At least 7 percent or around 3,800 of our students are Muslim,” Henry said.
Meanwhile, Atma Jaya Yogyakarta University spokesperson RA Vita Noor Prima Astuti said the university allowed students to wear the hijab as it was an inclusive institution.
“Many [Muslim students] have asked whether they are allowed to wear the hijab while on campus. We said ‘they are allowed’,” she said. (dmr)
