Muslims of Shaheen Bagh took to the streets on Wednesday in a protest against the hijab diktat in government pre-university colleges in Karnataka.
In the peaceful protest on the streets of Delhi, women held placards demanding justice, as people chanted “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is the greatest) and raised slogans of “Inquilaab Zindabad” (Long live the revolution).
“Who are you to tell me what to wear and what not to? What problems is my hijab creating?” a protestor questioned.
“Even if the high court order turns out to be against us, we will keep protesting. We will keep fighting for our rights until the last moment,” said the girl.
Times Now quoted a hijabi protestor as saying, “If you speak about equality with uniforms, then Sikhs that wear turbans must also be prohibited from wearing them. If the religion of Sikhs mandates adorning turbans and the laws are amended for them, then why is there discrimination towards Muslims?”
The Hijab Row
Muslim girls of colleges in northern Karnataka were asked to shun their hijab after a group of male students arrived at the colleges, adorning saffron scarves, in a protest against girls being allowed to wear headscarves on the college premises.
Although the rule book of a college suggested that girls are allowed to wear hijabs on the premises of the institution, the management recently prohibited the girls from covering their heads, following the diktat of the state government.
The controversy that has been raging since early January, forced the state to call for a committee to look into the matter and take a call on pre-university college uniforms across the state.
The state had directed students, of all colleges, to shun the Hijab until the report of the high-level committee formed in this regard is submitted.
The ‘saffron fever’ has now spread to a large number of districts in Karnataka, including Hassan, Chickmanglur and Belagavi. Apart from Kundapura, Hindu students of PU colleges in Udupi’s Bhandarkar and Byandoor adorned saffron in protest against girls adorning Hijab.
