WEB DESK
A burqa-clad student at a pre-university college in Karnataka’s Mandya district was on Tuesday allegedly heckled by a group as educational institutions across the state witnessed clashes over the hijab row.
The incident was captured on camera and the video has since gone viral on social media and featured on various TV news channels.
In the purported video, the girl is seen walking towards the college after parking her two-wheeler when some saffron scarves-clad students, holding a procession of sorts, charge towards her, screaming “Jai Shri Ram”. Unintimidated, she screams “Allah hu Akbar” back at them.
Later, college officials seem to escort the girl away from the protesters.
She is heard screaming: “Who gave them the rights to ask me to remove my burqa?”
Later, speaking to NDTV, the second-year Commerce student said, “I was not worried. When I entered the college they were not allowing me just because I was wearing the burqa.”
“They started shouting Jai Shri Ram. So I started screaming Allah hu Akbar. The principal and lecturers supported and protected me,” the student, identified by the channel as Muskan, added.
The incident comes on a day when clashes were seen across several educational institutions in the state over the hijab row. The hijab controversy erupted in January when six Muslim girls at the government pre-university college in Udupi were denied entry to classrooms after they started wearing headscarves.
The issue has since escalated, with several other high schools seeing protests by girls wearing hijabs, students wearing saffron scarfs, and Dalit students wearing blue scarfs in solidarity with the hijab-wearing girls. So far, protests have been reported from seven schools in Udupi, including two private schools.
Similar incidents have been reported from at least five districts.
“Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying,” Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai tweeted
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has joined the row over Muslim students alleging that they were not allowed to enter campuses and classrooms wearing the hijab in Karnataka. The girls’ education activist tweeted that “refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying.”
The hijab protests began last month at the Government Girls PU College in Karnataka’s Udupi when six students alleged that they had been barred from classes for insisting on wearing the headscarf. Right-wing groups in Udupi and Chikkamagaluru objected to Muslim girls wearing the hijab to class.
Soon, the controversy spilled beyond the borders of Karnataka and surfaced in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Puducherry. A minister in Madhya Pradesh ruled in favour of “discipline” and a “uniform dress code”. In Puducherry, the authorities have asked the head of a government school to investigate allegations of a teacher objecting to headscarves in class.
Ms Yousafzai, taking note of the developments, tweeted, “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.”
“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. https://t.co/UGfuLWAR8I
— Malala (@Malala) February 8, 2022
