Karnataka High Court rejects students' plea
In the Indian state of Karnataka, the High Court has upheld the decision to ban hijab in schools and colleges, saying that hijab is not an integral part of Islam.The High Court has rejected a petition filed by some Muslim girls in the state in this regard, saying that the discipline of the institution prevails over individual rights.
The Karnataka state government banned the niqab and hijab in schools and colleges last February. Muslim girls in several districts of the state had protested against the decision. Girls wearing niqab and hijab were not allowed to enter the school campus, which created tension in the state.
Thousands of girls came back from school and college due to warning hijab.Following the ruling, Karnataka Chief Minister Basu Raj Bomai has appealed to Muslim students to respect the court's decision and continue their studies in the classroom.
The students who filed the petition have not yet responded to the orders of the High Court, however, the decision of the High Court can be appealed in the Supreme Court.The issue was echoed across the country and protests were held in several states against the decision to ban the hijab.
The affair began when a college administration announced that Muslim women could wear the hijab within the college premises but not during class.Muslim women have been protesting over the issue for months. Indian Muslim women say constitution allows them to wear whatever they want. On the other hand, this conflict has also created fear and anger among the Muslim minority in India.
The case spread to other colleges in the state of Karnataka, where a video of a college in the Kandapur area of ODP district surfaced showing the administration barring women wearing hijab from admission.
What's the matter?
Eight female students of ODP's government pre-university college have not been able to attend classes for several weeks due to strict action against hijab by the administration.
When pictures of these students sitting on the steps of the school surfaced on social media, many people termed it as a violation of the religious freedom enjoyed by the citizens in the Constitution of India.
When we asked Imran Qureshi, a senior journalist based in Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, about this, he said that the Muslim population in ODP is small and there are about one thousand female students in government colleges.
He said that he has talked to the management of the college who said that this college is exclusively for girls so this decision has been taken and if there were both boys and girls in the college then the matter would have been different.
Out of a thousand female students in the college, only 75 are Muslims.He added that out of these 75, only a dozen girls wear hijab or burqa. When the matter came to a head after the action was taken by the college administration, he spoke to the parents of the students."First eight girls were Egyptian on hijab, then six Egyptians and now they are talking about sitting in classroom with four hijabs."
He said he had not yet spoken to any of the girls or their families.
One girl said that she goes to college every day in the hope that she will be allowed to enter the class. But she spends all day on campus outside of class and takes notebooks from her classmates and copies them.
The big problem for them is that their exams are over and they are out of the classrooms.