Chaos prevailed on Wednesday in several pre-university colleges in Karnataka, which were opened on Wednesday after remaining shut for a week owing to the Hijab row, as Muslim students were asked to remove their Hijab while entering the institutions.
Students launch a protest at Government PU College in Karnataka’s Vijayapura after teachers insisted students remove Hijab at the gates of the institution. “We want Hijab and education too,” one of the protesting students said. Meanwhile, several students were seen sitting inside classrooms with their hijabs on.
The Court, in its interim order pending consideration of all petitions related to the hijab row, last week restrained the students from wearing saffron shawls, scarves, hijab and any religious flag within the classroom.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai clarified that the court order implies to institutions that have dress code. “The order doesn’t apply where there is no dress code,” he said.
In Shivamogga, students refused to remove Hijab before entering the classroom at DVS college. “We will miss the class but can’t remove Hijab,” students echoed.
On the other hand, around 20 Muslim women were barred from entering GS Shankar Women’s College for refusing to remove Hijab. “We will enter college only after they allow us to wear Hijab. This is wrong. Overnight decision to ban Hijab students. All of us have boycott classes,” a student said.
Degree colleges also reopened on Wednesday but the government had made it clear that no uniform is stipulated there and, hence, students are free to wear the dress of their choice.
As the tension simmered in Sagara government pre-university college in Shivamogga district, the college authorities announced a holiday for the day.
In DVS College in Shivamogga, the girls who stood outside the college gate told reporters that their faith was more important than any government order.
“Today was our test and we are not allowed to go in. For us, practising our faith is as much important as education and Burqa is part of our faith. We will not let remove it,” a girl told reporters.
Similar incidents happened in Bijapur, Kalaburagi and Yadgir. Due to the row over Hijab versus saffron scarves, leading to untoward incidents in parts of the State early last week, High schools, PU and Degree colleges were shut since February nine. High schools reopened on Monday.
On January one, six girl students of a college in Udupi attended a press conference held by Campus Front of India (CFI) in the coastal town protesting against the college authorities denying them entry into the classroom by wearing Hijab. This was four days after they requested the principal permission to wear Hijabs in classes which was not allowed. Till then, students used to wear Hijab to the campus and entered the classroom after removing the scarves, the college principal Rudre Gowda had said.
“The institution did not have any rule on Hijab-wearing as such and since no one used to wear it to the classroom in the last 35 years. The students who came with the demand had the backing of outside forces,” Rudre Gowda had said.
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