13 hijab-wearing students on Monday approached the office of the district collector of Mangalore to negotiate with him regarding permission to attend classes.
Earlier in the day, the students had gone to request the university authorities to grant them permission to sit in the classes. However, the students were unable to convince the management.
This comes after the Vice-chancellor of Mangalore university made it clear that hijab will not be allowed on the university campus, including the canteen and library.
“Hijab will not be allowed in the library, lab, and campus canteen as well. Students, will after entering the college premises have to remove their hijab in the restroom meant for them,” the vice-chancellor had told reporters on May 28.
The Muslim girls, enrolled at the university, claimed that members of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had planned the protest held at the university following which the girls were barred from wearing hijabs in classrooms.
In a video shared on Twitter, a girl can be heard demanding the collector to allow them in the university while sporting the hijab.
On May 26, Hindu students had protested against their Muslim classmates who wore hijabs. They alleged that the college authorities failed to implement the Karnataka high court’s verdict that wearing of hijab is not an essential part of Islam.
Background of the hijab row:
The hijab controversy erupted and has been raging since January, after students of a pre-university college in Karnataka’s Udupi were prohibited from wearing headscarves (hijab), as part of their religious obligation, on the college premises. The issue blew up after Hindu students turned up to their colleges wearing saffron scarves in a protest against hijabi Muslims being allowed to wear headscarves.
The state was forced to form a committee to decide on the issue and prohibited the students from wearing any religious garment, including the hijab until a decision is reached.
However, a number of protests by saffron-clad students and Muslims around the state forced the state to shut down schools and colleges for a few days.
A petition was filed by six hijabi students of a PU college in Udupi in the Karnataka high court. For a long time, it did not provide any temporary relief to the students.
Educational institutions that were shut down by the state were directed to reopen ensuring that the state’s diktat, which prevents any religious garment from being worn to the institutions, is strictly adhered to.
The Karnataka high court finally gave its verdict stating that there was no material placed on record to prima facie show that wearing the headscarf was an essential religious practice. The court also said that school uniforms will cease to be a uniform if hijab is allowed.
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