Row Over Muslim Students Wearing Hijab Spreads To More Colleges In Karnataka: What We Know

What began as a protest by a small group of students in one college in Balagadi of Chikkamagaluru District last month is over some Muslim girls wearing Hijabs along with their uniforms is now spreading to more educational institutions.

While at the Government Degree College in Balagadi some students had protested against Hijab by wearing saffron shawls, things escalated further in another.

IANS

In Government Women¡¯s Pre-University College in Udupi, a total of six Muslim girl students were barred from classes for wearing a Hijab.

They had been protesting ever since, and now over 20 girls from the Government Pre University College in Kundapur in Udupi district of Karnataka were stopped by the authorities for wearing hijabs.

Viral video

A video of hijab-wearing Muslim girl students has gone viral on Thursday where students could be seen pleading to their principal to allow them into classrooms ahead of their exams.

Deplorable scenes unfolding in Karnataka, another govt college not allowing Girls with #hijab to enter classrooms. The students are crying and requesting the principal not to ruin their future with just 2 months to go for exams. pic.twitter.com/sYJzTsLuuX

¡ª Deepak Bopanna (@dpkBopanna) February 3, 2022

¡°We are students, we have been wearing the hijab to college for so long,¡± the girls are heard saying in the video.

Some of the girls have moved the Karnataka High Court demanding permission to attend classes while wearing 'hijab.

What the plea says

The students in the petition have submitted that the college authorities have refused them the right to attend classes only because they wear hijab. They have further requested the court to issue directions to the government to not to interfere with their religious and fundamental rights. They mentioned that wearing hijab is an essential part of their religion.

Muslim Voice/ Twitter

The students have also explained in their petition that they wore hijab along with the uniform. The petitioners said that the Principal, Vice Principal and lecturers humiliated them for wearing hijab.

They further said that the 'students following the Islamic religion and wearing hijab were denied entry into the college on December 28, 2021'. The petition also claimed that from the last week of December 2021, their class teacher did not allow them to sit in the class, and were asked to bring their parents. When the parents came, the college authorities didn't meet them and made them wait for the whole day, the petitioner said. The students have submitted two petitions to the High Court.

BCCL

Meanwhile, Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said that the government is looking into the role of communal forces behind surfacing of the hijab row in the state, and he also said that necessary steps will be taken against them for challenging the integrity and unity of the nation. He further said that there is no room for 'hijab', 'naqab', 'burka', saffron and green shawls in the college campuses.

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