Authorities shut educational
institutions after protests over the ban on hijab intensifies in southern
Karnataka state.
Muslim students and
members of Muslim Students Federation protest against the recent hijab ban in
New Delhi [Rajat Gupta/EPA]
8 Feb 2022
A video posted on Twitter showing a hijab-wearing Muslim
student being heckled by a Hindu far-right mob at a college in Karnataka state
has caused outrage amid intensifying protests over ban on Islamic headscarves in
the southern state.
Muskan Khan was surrounded by men wearing saffron
scarves as she arrived at her college in Mandya, the viral video showed, as she
confronted the protesters, many of whom, she said, were outsiders.
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The ban on Islamic headscarves has outraged Muslim
students who say it’s an attack on their faith enshrined in India’s secular
constitution, while Hindu right-wing groups have tried to prevent Muslim women
from entering educational institutions causing communal tension.
“I was just there to submit an assignment; that’s why I
entered the college. They were not allowing me to go inside just because I was
[wearing] the burqa,” Khan later told India’s NDTV news channel.
“After that, they started shouting the slogan ‘Jai Shri
Ram’. (Hail Lord Ram). Then I started to scream ‘Allah Akbar’ (God is great),”
she said, adding that she would keep fighting for her right to wear the hijab.
“Ten percent [of the protesters] were from the college
but [the rest of them] were outsiders,” Khan said.
Fears among Muslims
The Karnataka government run by the right-wing Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced shutting down of educational
institutions for three days.
The standoff in Karnataka state – home to India’s IT hub
of Bengaluru, has galvanised fears among the minority community about what they
say is increasing persecution under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi.
Fresh demonstrations on Tuesday saw police fire tear gas
to disperse a crowd at one government-run campus, while a heavy police presence
was seen at schools in nearby towns.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai from Modi’s BJP appealed
for calm after announcing all high schools in the state would be closed for
three days.
“I appeal to all the students, teachers and management
of schools and colleges … to maintain peace and harmony,” he said.
Students at a government-run high school were told not to wear hijabs last
month. Since then Hindu far-right groups have tried to prevent hijab-wearing
Muslim women from entering educational institutions in the state.
The government of Karnataka, where 12 percent of the
population is Muslim, said in an order on February 5 that all schools should
follow dress codes set by management.
Muslim
Indians hold up signs reading ‘Hijab is our right’ in New Delhi, India
[Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters]
Escalating confrontations between
Muslim and Hindu students
BC Nagesh, the education minister of Karnataka who
tweeted the order, said school dress codes had been set after reviewing court
decisions from across the country to ban the hijab at educational institutions.
Campuses have seen escalating confrontations between
Muslim students condemning the ban and Hindu pupils that say their classmates
have disrupted their education.
Local media reported last week that several schools in
the coastal city of Udupi had denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the hijab
citing an education ministry order, prompting protests from parents and
students.
“All of a sudden, they are saying you are not supposed
to wear hijab … why did they start now?” said Ayesha, a teenage student at the
Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College in Udupi.
“We are not against any religion. We are not protesting
against anyone. It is just for our own rights,” she told AFP.
Tensions have frayed further in recent days in Udupi and
elsewhere in majority Hindu Karnataka as students with saffron shawls –
typically worn by Hindu far-right wing groups – thronged into classrooms to
show their support of their schools’ hijab ban.
Fellow student Amrut, standing nearby among a crowd of Hindu
boys wearing saffron shawls, said the dispute had unfairly prevented him from
attending class.
“We had … requested them not to wear hijab,” he said.
“But today, they are wearing hijab. They are not allowing us to go inside.”
Pakistani education rights icon Malala Yousafzai called
the hijab ban for students “horrifying”.
“Objectification of women persists – for wearing less or
more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women,” Yousafzai
said on Twitter on Tuesday
College
is forcing us to choose between studies and the hijab”.
Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying.
Objectification of women persists — for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the
marginalisation of Muslim women.
Critics have said Modi’s election
in 2014 emboldened Hindu supremacists who see India as a Hindu nation and are
seeking to undermine its secular foundations at the expense of its 200
million-strong minority Muslim community.
Opposition parties and critics accuse the BJP government
at the federal and state levels of discriminating against religious minorities
and running the risk of stoking violence. Modi has defended his record and says
his economic and social policies benefit all Indians.
A case filed by one of the students, who said in her
petition that wearing the hijab was a fundamental right to religion guaranteed
by the constitution, was heard in the Karnataka High Court in state capital
Bengaluru on Tuesday.
While no final order was passed, the judge appealed for
peace and calm and will continue hearing the petition on Wednesday, one of the
lawyers for the petitioner told Reuters.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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