Srinagar: A government-run nursing school in the Valley has asked its women students to sign an affidavit that would bar them from wearing the abaya during duty hours, angering many in the institute who wear the loose-fitting, full-length robes symbolic of Islamic piety.

At least one student called the order dictatorial and urged chief minister Mehbooba Mufti to intervene.

The affidavit that the principal of Srinagar's Ancillary Medical Training (AMT) School has asked the women students to sign speaks of maintaining the institute's dress code.

"I will maintain the dress code as per the policy of the institution. I will maintain the code of ethics as per the policy of the institution, and I will not wear abaya or cover my face during clinical postings," it reads.

The directive came days after Mohammad Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's reform-minded crown prince who has lifted a ban on women driving cars or attending mixed public sporting events, suggested that women in the kingdom need not wear abayas or head covers as long as their attire "was decent and respectful".

In Srinagar, the student said many in the institute wore the Islamic dress. "We are approaching the higher-ups for the revocation of the order," she said.

"Mehboobaji would herself wear the abaya and still does so occasionally. If she can do it, why can't we?"

Mehbooba, it is widely believed, used symbols like the abaya to reach out to people in the Valley when she started her political innings in the early years of militancy.

Many women wear burqas and abayas in Kashmir, although separatist hardline woman leader Asiya Andrabi's bid to impose an Islamic dress code on women had met with little success in the past.

The nursing school's principal couldn't be reached on her mobile. But junior health minister Asiea Naqash, who is from Mehbooba's Peoples Democratic Party, said there was nothing wrong as long as the directive was aimed at ensuring discipline.

"Although there is nothing wrong in wearing the abaya, we should refrain from giving the issue a religious colour. I think the decision was taken to impose some discipline," she told The Telegraph.

An official at the Government Medical College in Srinagar - the nursing school is part of the college - said students were free to wear abayas outside the institute. "The restrictions are there only during working hours," he said.