Protests over the hijab issue raging in Karnataka’s educational institutions were held in Aligarh, Hyderabad and Vijayawada while a controversy erupted at a private college in Jaipur district when some girls insisted on attending classes in a burqa and cops had to be called to resolve the matter.
Twelve students of Kasturi Devi College in Chaksu town in Jaipur district, which follows a uniform rule, protested after they were barred from entering the institute for wearing burqas. In a video clip that went viral, the girls and their relatives claimed that they had been attending classes in burqas for the last three years.
However, the college’s assistant director Sumit Sharma told that it was only for the last few days that some girls were wearing burqas to class.
He said there were protests from other students who insisted that they should not be forced to wear the uniform as girls from the minority community were not following the code. Sharma said the uniform rule was put in place to prevent any outsider from entering the premises ‘to create mischief’. “Some people peddled misinformation that we opposed hijab, which is untrue. We allow hijabs and some students do wear it,” he added.
In Aligarh Muslim University, students wearing hijabs held a protest march in the campus. “We have the freedom to wear anything and it includes hijab too,” said Tanveer Fatima, a protester.
In Vijayawada, thousands of protesters from the minority community gathered at Panja Centre for a rally. In Hyderabad, students took out a ‘mashaal juloos’.
Meanwhile, police in Maharashtra’s Malegaon town booked four people for violating prohibitory orders for organising a pro-hijab demonstration on Thursday in which over 5,000 women took part. Four organisers of the protest have been booked. “All of them are functionaries of Jamita-e-Ulema,” said inspector Vasant Bhoye.
Some people had given a call for a ‘hijab day’ Friday, but police did not give permission for the same. “Police maintained bandobast to ensure that life was normal and there wasn’t any demonstration in the town,” said an officer.
