Hyderabad: Under the banner of Secular Intervention, a city-based organisation hoping to eliminate fascist forces, a protest was conducted against the ongoing hijab row at the Ambedkar statue, Lower Tank Bund on Tuesday.
The protest was led by Anand Singh, an activist from Hyderabad who dubbed the discrimination against hijab-clad women in Karnataka, a violation of a citizen’s fundamental rights. Anand informed Siasat.com that they initially tried to protest at Dharna Chowk but were denied permission for the same.
“The incidents taking place in Karnataka currently and in fact across the country over the last seven years are highly disturbing. The attack on minorities keeps persisting and as such has to be countered,” added Singh.
While the protest did not gather any more than twenty-five people, the people present at the site were very vocal about the assault on the rights of Muslim women.
“My husband was a Brigadier in the Indian Army and fought in the 1971 war. It is extremely disturbing to see how the democratic environment of the country has been affected,” said Naheed Shah.
Shah made it a point to state that there was a time when her husband and his Hindu friends lived in harmony which has been hampered by the current establishment’s ideologies.
When asked about the hijab, Shah noted that she did not wear the hijab earlier but she will now solely assert her Muslim identity. A similar grievance against the establishment was noted by Sabah, another army wife.
The protestors spoke about freedom of speech, communal harmony and other values which they argued are missing in India currently.
