Students at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Friday demonstrated against the Karnataka government’s ban on hijab in educational institutions. The students, the majority of whom wore hijabs, shouted slogans and demanded the freedom to wear whatever they wanted.
Police were stationed outside the AMU entrance in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Security personnel escorted the girls as they marched on the street of campus.
The students shouted slogans “Nara-e Takbeer Allahu Akbar” and “La Ilaha Ilalah” as they marched past. Some of them also held placards, which read, ‘In solidarity with Karnataka students‘, ‘Stop Islamophobia‘, and ‘lady Zindabad inspires’.
A report by India Today quoted the protesting students as saying, “We want to request the government not to ban our hijab. Listen to us. We won’t take off our hijab, we’ve been wearing it for years.”
“This is our constitutional right. People are trying to make it a Hindu-Muslim issue, but we just want outright to choose what to wear.”
A video of a female student wearing a hijab being heckled by a group of guys wearing saffron scarves in a Karnataka college went viral earlier this week. In many districts of Karnataka, incidents of groups wearing saffron scarves in reaction to women fighting for their right to attend colleges wearing hijabs have been recorded.
Hijab row
The hijab (headscarf) dispute in Karnataka began on January 1, 2022, when Muslim schoolgirls at Udupi Women’s Pre-University College were denied admission because they wore hijabs.
Since then, numerous events have occurred across Karnataka, in which Muslim girls have worn hijabs to school and Hindu students have begun wearing saffron shawls as a form of protest.
Earlier this week, the fights became violent. This problem has now extended to several parts of the country. Currently, the case is before the Karnataka High Court.
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