A senior member of the Iranian parliament says Azerbaijan will share the fate of pre-Revolution Iran if it insists on banning hijab for children at schools.

Ali Motahari said in a short opinion piece published on Saturday that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's treatment of the religious sentiments of people in his country echoes the policies of the former shah of Iran, which led to his ouster in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Motahari said Aliyev could share the shah's fate by replicating the agenda of the former Iranian ruler, who wanted closer ties with the Israeli regime and sought to undermine the role of Islam in society.

"This measure by Aliyev in banning the hijab for schoolgirls will plunge him into the abyss of insecurity, because one cannot play with the religious sentiments of the people," he said.

Azerbaijan introduced rules last month that prohibit school pupils from wearing clothing that is incompatible with secular education.

Protests broke out in the country this week after reports that some pupils and teachers wearing headscarves were being denied entry to schools.

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Azerbaijani authorities have arrested more than 200 people for opposing enforcement of the new rules.

A member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee also called on Azerbaijan to respect children's right to education while wearing the hijab.

Mohammad Reza Mohseni Saani said in a Saturday letter addressed to the Azerbaijani parliament speaker Sahiba Gafarova that girls in Azerbaijan should have the right to continue their education without facing "any discriminatory deprivation."

"…depriving children of knowledge means weakening the future of a nation and paving the way for its scientific and cultural dependence," said Saani in the letter.

The head of Iran's seminaries, Ayatollah Alireza A'rafi, also issued a statement on Saturday, calling on the Azerbaijani government to respect the religious demands of the people of that Muslim country, especially the schoolgirls and female teachers.