The Supreme Court ruled last Monday in favor of petitioners from the Minangkabau Customary Institution (LKAAM), a West Sumatra administration-sanctioned organization that protects the local culture, and declared the decree null and void. The Supreme Court justices presiding over the case were Yulius, Is Sudaryono and Irfan Fachruddin.

The panel found the decree was made without following the proper procedures to issue a regulation, in violation of the 2011 law on drafting of laws and regulations, according to Supreme Court spokesperson and justice Andi Samsan Nganro who cited the ruling. The court also found the decree contradicted some provisions in three other laws, including those of the 2003 National Education System Law that mandate that students have the right to religious education.

Signed on Feb. 3 by Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim, Home Minister Tito Karnavian and Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, the decree ordered state schools and local administrators nationwide to revoke any regulations requiring or banning students from wearing religious attire as part of their uniform, with the exception of Aceh. The decree was made to protect the individual freedom of every student to wear or not to wear religious attire, following a controversy in January over a state school in Padang, West Sumatra, that had made hijabs mandatory for all female students. It was in line with a provision in the 2003 law on the education system that mandates that education be carried out in a nondiscriminatory manner by upholding religious values and national diversity, among other values.

Read also: No religious dress code in public schools, ministerial decree states

“This [ruling] is a huge setback for religious freedom and expression in Indonesia, especially for schoolgirls and female teachers in state schools,” Human Rights Watch Indonesia researcher Andreas Harsono told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

He said the judicial review petition was only one of the ways that conservative Muslims wanted to pressure all Muslim girls and women to wear the hijab in Indonesia even though the Constitution protected freedom of expression and religious freedom, as well as the right to education without discrimination.

Human Rights Watch launched in March a report that found the hijab remained mandatory female attire in various institutions in Indonesia, posing psychological and even physical risks to the women compelled to wear it. In the report titled I Wanted to Run Away: Abusive Dress Codes for Women and Girls in Indonesia, the organization presented 142 in-depth interviews with schoolgirls, parents, female civil servants, educators, government officials and women’s rights activists conducted from 2014 to early 2021.

Read also: Mandatory hijabs have far-reaching consequences for Indonesian women: HRW

Andreas said Human Rights Watch also recorded at least 63 dress codes for women and girls that discriminate against students, civil servants and visitors to government offices, which the revoked joint decree had tried to correct at schools.

University of Indonesia School of Law professor Sulistyowati Irianto also said the annulled joint decree was supposed to address the problem of intolerance and exclusivity that came alongside mandatory hijab rules for schoolgirls.

“There was nothing wrong with the joint decree, as it neither required nor banned anyone wanting to wear religious attire in schools,” she said.

She said revoking the joint decree would instead infringe upon the right for children to choose what they wanted to wear and that they would return to being put under discriminatory regulations set by teachers and local administrations.

Read also: Indonesia’s religious minority students struggle against systemic bigotry

The three ministries that signed the joint decree have yet to make any move to respond to the ruling, with Home Ministry spokesperson Benny Irwan saying they respected the ruling and would first study it once they received the official copy of the ruling.

“We will also need to coordinate with related ministries to agree on and to decide what will be our stance on the issue,” Benny told the Post.

Education and Culture Ministry director general for early childhood, basic and secondary education, Jumeri, said the ministry would continue to instill tolerance and religious moderation and ensure safety for students when practicing religious traditions in state schools.

“Those are things that we must apply [in schools],” Jumeri said on Friday, as quoted by kompas.com.