Hijab Row: Students Defy Court Order On Hijab
Bengaluru, Feb 16: Several students and teachers in Karnataka on Wednesday denied the High Court’s interim order banning religious attire in educational institutions and insisted on entry into schools and colleges with hijab and burqa. The students of Dr. G Shankar College in Vijayapura staged a protest saying they want to wear hijabs inside the classrooms. The protest led to a meeting between the students and college authorities in which the management said they were helpless due to an interim order of the court stating that no religious attire can be worn in the classrooms.
In Ballari, a teacher who arrived at a private educational institution wearing a hijab argued that the management had no right to restrict her from entering the institution as the court had not given its final verdict. “Hijab is part of our religion. The High Court has not said that we should not wear hijab. I will wear it until the court gives it final verdict,” the teacher said. The hijab-wearing teacher also supported the students who turned up at the institution wearing hijabs, a video of which went viral on the social media.
On Tuesday, 13 students from a Government High School in Shivamogga district refused to take the SSLC preparatory examination after their teacher asked them to remove their hijab before entering the classroom. In another instance, a few students of the Karnataka Public School in Nellihudikeri in Kodagu district protested against the hijab ban. The hijab debate has spilled over to numerous districts. The row erupted when some Muslim girl students of PU College in Udupi insisted on wearing hijab in classrooms. The college administration refused them access to the classes, saying any apparel other than the specified uniform was not permitted in the classrooms.
