Bengaluru: Several schools in Karnataka barred entry to students as well as teachers in hijab on Monday amid the ongoing row surrounding Muslim students wearing a headscarf to educational institutes that snowballed into a major controversy in the south Indian state. A video showed officials of a government school in Mandya district stopping students wearing hijab and asking them to remove it before entering the campus.
In one of the videos, a woman, a Muslim teacher apparently, wearing a headscarf and a burqa, was forced to remove it on the road outside the school. She was dressed in a sari and had worn the burqa (a long black cloak) on top. The woman removed the burqa and the headscarf on the road outside the school after which she was allowed to enter the premises.
Parents of students in hijab were not impressed by the move and asked the school officials to at least let the students on the campus and said they would remove the hijab in their respective classrooms. "Requesting to allow students in the classroom, hijab can be taken off after that but they're not allowing entry with hijab," one of the parents said.
Many students who did not comply with the officials were sent back. In the Shivamogga district, at least 13 students of classes 8 to 10 were denied entry after they refused to remove the hijab. The students were supposed to sit for the SSLC preparatory examination. However, they went back boycotting the exams.
Several students of Anjuman school and Sardar school in Belagavi district also came to the schools wearing hijab. Many had their parents accompanying them who argued with the school staff at the gates when the students were not allowed in.
The hijab row has been turned into a national controversy even as the Karnataka High Court is hearing the matter today. The court in its interim direction last week had barred both hijab and saffron scarves in schools till the final verdict. The schools reopened today after the holiday declared by the state government in view of the hijab-saffron shawl controversy.
MLA Kaneez Fathima enters Karnataka Vidhan Sabha in hijab
While hijabi students were barred entry to schools in several districts, Karnataka Congress MLA Kaneez Fathima was seen attending the joint session of the State Legislative Assembly wearing a hijab.
On February 5, Fathima, while protesting with the Muslim students supporting the hijab at Kalaburagi city, had said: "Wearing hijab is a constitutional right given to the Muslim community. We will not leave the burqa for any reason. No one has the right to question this".
"I will also sit in the assembly wearing hijab. If anyone has courage, can stop me," she told the media then.
READ: Govt order banning hijab 'flawed', Karnataka HC told; hearing to resume tomorrow
