Karnataka 'hijab row': protests spread in India as girls refuse to be told what not to wear
By Rhea Mogul, Manveena Suri and Swati Gupta,
CNN /ANI/Reuters
Aburqa-wearing college student has become a symbol of resistance in India's Karnataka state, where religious tensions are rising over the right to wear religious clothing to school.
Muskan Khan was attempting to hand in a college assignment in the city of Mandya when she was accosted by a group of Hindu men wearing saffron scarves -- the color of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- according to video posted to social media.
The men heckle her as she makes her way across the school grounds, demanding she take off her face covering, but instead of complying, Khan shouts back "Allahu Akbar" as she punches her fist in the air.
The confrontation illustrates the religious divide that's been widening in Karnataka since a group of girls began protesting outside their government-run school in January after they were denied entry in the classroom for wearing a hijab.
The girls petitioned the state's top court to lift the ban, prompting rival protests from right-wing Hindu students.
On Wednesday the court referred the petition to a larger panel of judges, but no date has been set for hearings.
Activists say the hijab row is yet another example of a broader trend in India -- one that has seen a crackdown on India's minority Muslim population since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP came to power nearly eight years ago.
They say that by denying Muslim women the choice to wear the hijab, the government is denying them their religious freedoms, enshrined in the Indian constitution.
"This is a massive attempt by the BJP to homogenize Indian culture, to make it a Hindu-only state," said 23-year-old Muslim activist Afreen Fatima, who has been protesting in support of the students in her hometown of Allahabad in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state.
"Muslim women are isolated in India. And the situation is getting worse every day."
The 'hijab row'
What started as a small protest made national headlines after several other government-run educational institutions in Karnataka denied entry to students wearing hijabs.
© Altaf Qadri/AP
Aburqa-wearing college student has become a symbol of resistance in India's Karnataka state, where religious tensions are rising over the right to wear religious clothing to school.
Muskan Khan was attempting to hand in a college assignment in the city of Mandya when she was accosted by a group of Hindu men wearing saffron scarves -- the color of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- according to video posted to social media.
The men heckle her as she makes her way across the school grounds, demanding she take off her face covering, but instead of complying, Khan shouts back "Allahu Akbar" as she punches her fist in the air.
The confrontation illustrates the religious divide that's been widening in Karnataka since a group of girls began protesting outside their government-run school in January after they were denied entry in the classroom for wearing a hijab.
The girls petitioned the state's top court to lift the ban, prompting rival protests from right-wing Hindu students.
On Wednesday the court referred the petition to a larger panel of judges, but no date has been set for hearings.
Activists say the hijab row is yet another example of a broader trend in India -- one that has seen a crackdown on India's minority Muslim population since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP came to power nearly eight years ago.
They say that by denying Muslim women the choice to wear the hijab, the government is denying them their religious freedoms, enshrined in the Indian constitution.
"This is a massive attempt by the BJP to homogenize Indian culture, to make it a Hindu-only state," said 23-year-old Muslim activist Afreen Fatima, who has been protesting in support of the students in her hometown of Allahabad in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state.
"Muslim women are isolated in India. And the situation is getting worse every day."
The 'hijab row'
What started as a small protest made national headlines after several other government-run educational institutions in Karnataka denied entry to students wearing hijabs.
© Altaf Qadri/AP
Indian Muslim woman shouts slogans during a protest
in Delhi against the ban on Muslim girls wearing hijab in class.
The protests have since spread to other cities. Scores of students took to the streets in India's capital Delhi this month holding placards and shouting slogans to express their anger at the ban. And hundreds more have protested in Kolkata and Hyderabad, Reuters reported.
On Tuesday, BJP-ruled Karnataka ordered a three-day closure of all high schools and colleges amid the growing tensions. And on Wednesday authorities in the state's capital Bengaluru banned protests outside schools for two weeks.
For many Muslim women, the hijab is an integral part of their faith. While it has been seen as a source of controversy in some western countries, in India it is neither banned, nor restricted from being worn in public places.
Karnataka's education minister B.C. Nagesh said he supported banning the hijab in educational institutions, citing the state's mandate on religious attire.
"Government is very firm that the school is not a platform to practice dharma (religion)," he told CNN affiliate CNN News-18.
But experts say the issue runs deeper than a dress code.
Karnataka -- where just 13% of the population is Muslim -- is governed by the BJP.
According to lawyer Mohammed Tahir, who is representing one group of petitioners in court, Karnataka is a "hotbed" of the Hindutva ideology supported by many right-wing groups, which seeks to make India the land of the Hindus.
Karnataka has banned the sale and slaughter of cows, an animal considered sacred to Hindus. It has also introduced a controversial anti-conversion bill, which makes it more difficult for interfaith couples to marry or for people to convert to Islam or Christianity.
And according to Tahir, the lawyer, religious tension in the state will likely increase ahead of pivotal state elections next year.
"These issues (like the hijab ban) are very easy to polarize the entire community for votes," he said.
In a statement Tuesday, the Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy said it "strongly condemns the attempt by Hindutva forces and the BJP government of Karnataka to engulf college and school campuses in the already raging communal fire in the state."
"College campuses have thus been transformed into yet another playing field for the BJP and other right-wing Hindu majoritarians," the statement said.
CNN has attempted to contact the state authorities but did not receive a response.
Muslim women further targeted
The hijab row follows a string of online attacks against Muslim women in India.
In early January, the Indian government was investigating a website that purported to offer Muslim women for sale. It was the second time in less than a year that a fake online auction of that kind sparked outrage in the country.
"They came for us online," said Fatima, who was featured on the online app. "Now, they are directly targeting our religious practice. It started in one college, and grew. I have no reason to believe it will end there."
On Tuesday, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, called the hijab row "horrifying."
"Objectification of women persists -- for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women," she wrote on Twitter.
The All India President of the Students' Federation of India, V P Sanu, criticized the hijab ban, saying it was used "as a reason to deny Muslim women's right to education."
Modi referred briefly to Muslim women in a speech in Uttar Pradesh Thursday as that state started voting in local elections.
The Prime Minister said his government "stands with every victim Muslim woman."
He didn't refer to the hijab ban but said the government gave Muslim women "freedom" by scrapping the controversial Muslim practice of triple talaq, which allows a Muslim man to divorce his wife by simply saying the Arabic word for divorce, "talaq", three times. The Indian government criminalized the practice in 2019.
Khan, the student who yelled at the Hindu men, said she was defending her religious rights.
"Every religion has freedom, India is a unity...every religion has freedom," Khan told reporters Wednesday.
"They are following their culture and I am following my culture. They should let us follow our culture and not raise any obstacle."
© ANI/Reuters
The protests have since spread to other cities. Scores of students took to the streets in India's capital Delhi this month holding placards and shouting slogans to express their anger at the ban. And hundreds more have protested in Kolkata and Hyderabad, Reuters reported.
On Tuesday, BJP-ruled Karnataka ordered a three-day closure of all high schools and colleges amid the growing tensions. And on Wednesday authorities in the state's capital Bengaluru banned protests outside schools for two weeks.
For many Muslim women, the hijab is an integral part of their faith. While it has been seen as a source of controversy in some western countries, in India it is neither banned, nor restricted from being worn in public places.
Karnataka's education minister B.C. Nagesh said he supported banning the hijab in educational institutions, citing the state's mandate on religious attire.
"Government is very firm that the school is not a platform to practice dharma (religion)," he told CNN affiliate CNN News-18.
But experts say the issue runs deeper than a dress code.
Karnataka -- where just 13% of the population is Muslim -- is governed by the BJP.
According to lawyer Mohammed Tahir, who is representing one group of petitioners in court, Karnataka is a "hotbed" of the Hindutva ideology supported by many right-wing groups, which seeks to make India the land of the Hindus.
Karnataka has banned the sale and slaughter of cows, an animal considered sacred to Hindus. It has also introduced a controversial anti-conversion bill, which makes it more difficult for interfaith couples to marry or for people to convert to Islam or Christianity.
And according to Tahir, the lawyer, religious tension in the state will likely increase ahead of pivotal state elections next year.
"These issues (like the hijab ban) are very easy to polarize the entire community for votes," he said.
In a statement Tuesday, the Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy said it "strongly condemns the attempt by Hindutva forces and the BJP government of Karnataka to engulf college and school campuses in the already raging communal fire in the state."
"College campuses have thus been transformed into yet another playing field for the BJP and other right-wing Hindu majoritarians," the statement said.
CNN has attempted to contact the state authorities but did not receive a response.
Muslim women further targeted
The hijab row follows a string of online attacks against Muslim women in India.
In early January, the Indian government was investigating a website that purported to offer Muslim women for sale. It was the second time in less than a year that a fake online auction of that kind sparked outrage in the country.
"They came for us online," said Fatima, who was featured on the online app. "Now, they are directly targeting our religious practice. It started in one college, and grew. I have no reason to believe it will end there."
On Tuesday, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, called the hijab row "horrifying."
"Objectification of women persists -- for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women," she wrote on Twitter.
The All India President of the Students' Federation of India, V P Sanu, criticized the hijab ban, saying it was used "as a reason to deny Muslim women's right to education."
Modi referred briefly to Muslim women in a speech in Uttar Pradesh Thursday as that state started voting in local elections.
The Prime Minister said his government "stands with every victim Muslim woman."
He didn't refer to the hijab ban but said the government gave Muslim women "freedom" by scrapping the controversial Muslim practice of triple talaq, which allows a Muslim man to divorce his wife by simply saying the Arabic word for divorce, "talaq", three times. The Indian government criminalized the practice in 2019.
Khan, the student who yelled at the Hindu men, said she was defending her religious rights.
"Every religion has freedom, India is a unity...every religion has freedom," Khan told reporters Wednesday.
"They are following their culture and I am following my culture. They should let us follow our culture and not raise any obstacle."
© ANI/Reuters
Men with saffron scarves outside the college in Mandya,
Karnataka where Muskan Khan tried to hand in her assignment.
Indian students block roads as row over hijab in schools mounts
By Rupak De Chowdhuri -
KOLKATA (Reuters) - Hundreds of students in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata on Wednesday chanted slogans and blocked roads in protest of a hijab ban in the southern state of Karnataka, as a row over wearing the head covering in schools intensifies.
The row has drawn in Malala Yousafzai, the campaigner for girls' education and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who survived being shot aged 15 by a Taliban gunman in her native Pakistan in 2012, who asked Indian leaders in a tweet to "stop the marginalisation of Muslim women".
© Reuters/RUPAK DE CHOWDHURI
Protest against the recent hijab ban, in Kolkata
Local media reported last week that several schools in Karnataka had denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the hijab citing an education ministry order, prompting protests from parents and students.
Hindu students mounted counter-protests, flocking to schools in recent days in support of the ban, forcing the Karnataka state government to shut schools and colleges for three days to ease tensions between the two communities.
In one incident in a video widely shared online, a lone Muslim student wearing the hijab is surrounded by Hindu male youths shouting religious slogans while trying to enter her school in Karnataka.
The protesting students in Kolkata on Wednesday were predominantly women wearing hijabs, a Reuters eyewitness said, adding the demonstrations were without incident. The students told Reuters that they plan to reconvene on Thursday.
"We will keep protesting until the government stops insulting the students," said Tasmeen Sultana, one of the protestors. "We want our fundamental rights back…you cannot take away our rights."
Protests have also been planned on Wednesday in India's capital New Delhi.
"Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying. Objectification of women persists — for wearing less or more," Yousafzai said in a tweet late on Tuesday.
The government of Karnataka, where 12% of the population is Muslim and which is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has said in an order that students should follow dress codes set by schools.
Opposition parties and critics accuse the BJP government at federal and state level of discriminating against the minority Muslim population. Modi has defended his record and says his economic and social policies benefit all Indians.
(Writing by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Alasdair Pal and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Local media reported last week that several schools in Karnataka had denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the hijab citing an education ministry order, prompting protests from parents and students.
Hindu students mounted counter-protests, flocking to schools in recent days in support of the ban, forcing the Karnataka state government to shut schools and colleges for three days to ease tensions between the two communities.
In one incident in a video widely shared online, a lone Muslim student wearing the hijab is surrounded by Hindu male youths shouting religious slogans while trying to enter her school in Karnataka.
The protesting students in Kolkata on Wednesday were predominantly women wearing hijabs, a Reuters eyewitness said, adding the demonstrations were without incident. The students told Reuters that they plan to reconvene on Thursday.
"We will keep protesting until the government stops insulting the students," said Tasmeen Sultana, one of the protestors. "We want our fundamental rights back…you cannot take away our rights."
Protests have also been planned on Wednesday in India's capital New Delhi.
"Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying. Objectification of women persists — for wearing less or more," Yousafzai said in a tweet late on Tuesday.
The government of Karnataka, where 12% of the population is Muslim and which is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has said in an order that students should follow dress codes set by schools.
Opposition parties and critics accuse the BJP government at federal and state level of discriminating against the minority Muslim population. Modi has defended his record and says his economic and social policies benefit all Indians.
(Writing by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Alasdair Pal and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Malala Yousafzai joins outcry over "horrifying" hijab bans in India
Arshad R. Zargar
- Yesterday
CBS News
New Delhi — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has urged Indian leaders to "stop the marginalization of Muslim women" amid mounting protests over a college's ban on students wearing the traditional Islamic headscarf, or hijab.
Authorities in the southern Indian state of Karnataka on Tuesday ordered schools and colleges to close for three days, and on Wednesday they banned gatherings near all educational institutions for two weeks in a bid to curb the protests, which have drawn counter-protests by Hindu students.
There were reports of dueling protesters pelting each other with stones and of police resorting to force on Tuesday as the demonstrations spread to more colleges and at least two other states.
"Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying," Yousafzai wrote on Twitter, quoting a report in which a Muslim student said she and her classmates were being forced to choose between learning, and wearing the hijab.
"Objectification of women persists — for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalization of Muslim women," wrote Yousafzai, who was 15 when she survived an attack by the Taliban in Pakistan for speaking out on girls' right to education.
The hijab protests in India started in January at a government-run college in Karnataka state's Udupi district, when six teenaged girls were barred from classes for wearing the head covering. The college introduced its ban on the hijab in December, saying the scarves violated school uniform rules.
© Provided by CBS News
CBS News
New Delhi — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has urged Indian leaders to "stop the marginalization of Muslim women" amid mounting protests over a college's ban on students wearing the traditional Islamic headscarf, or hijab.
Authorities in the southern Indian state of Karnataka on Tuesday ordered schools and colleges to close for three days, and on Wednesday they banned gatherings near all educational institutions for two weeks in a bid to curb the protests, which have drawn counter-protests by Hindu students.
There were reports of dueling protesters pelting each other with stones and of police resorting to force on Tuesday as the demonstrations spread to more colleges and at least two other states.
"Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying," Yousafzai wrote on Twitter, quoting a report in which a Muslim student said she and her classmates were being forced to choose between learning, and wearing the hijab.
"Objectification of women persists — for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalization of Muslim women," wrote Yousafzai, who was 15 when she survived an attack by the Taliban in Pakistan for speaking out on girls' right to education.
The hijab protests in India started in January at a government-run college in Karnataka state's Udupi district, when six teenaged girls were barred from classes for wearing the head covering. The college introduced its ban on the hijab in December, saying the scarves violated school uniform rules.
© Provided by CBS News
Parents of Indian students who were barred from entering their classrooms for wearing the hijab, a headscarf used by Muslim women, argue with a police official outside the college premises in Udupi, India, February 4, 2022. / Credit: Bangalore News Photos/AP
Talks between the protesting students and college administrators failed to resolve the crisis, as more colleges implemented new hijab bans. As the protests started to garner headlines, Hindu students began turning up in schools wearing shawls in saffron — a color that symbolizes India's majority Hindu population — in protest against Muslim women and girls wearing hijabs.
Soon the protests spread, with students holding marches and shouting religious slogans.
One video of a lone Hijab-clad Muslim girl being heckled outside a college by a group of Hindu students in saffron scarves, shouting religious slogans, went viral on Tuesday. It shows the girl responding with shouts of the Muslim refrain "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) before she's escorted away by college staff.
"They started shouting 'Jai Shri Ram' [Hindu proclamation of faith], so I started screaming 'Allahu Akbar,'" Muskan, the Muslim girl, later told Indian news outlet NDTV. "We will continue to protest for the hijab."
On Wednesday, after hearing petitions challenging the hijab bans at colleges in the state, a judge at the Karnataka High Court said it was too serious a matter for a lone arbitrator to rule on, noting that: "These matters give rise to certain constitutional questions of seminal importance in view of certain aspects of personal law."
The court's Chief Justice will now appoint a multiple-judge bench to hear the case.
The hijab standoff has angered much of India's Muslim community, which, at approximately 200 million, is a minority in the country of almost 1.4 billion people.
Many believe Muslims have been marginalized in India for decades, but increasingly during the eight years of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tenure.
Two years ago, Modi faced violent protests by Muslims across the country when his government brought in a new citizenship law that singled out members of the religion.
© Provided by CBS News
Talks between the protesting students and college administrators failed to resolve the crisis, as more colleges implemented new hijab bans. As the protests started to garner headlines, Hindu students began turning up in schools wearing shawls in saffron — a color that symbolizes India's majority Hindu population — in protest against Muslim women and girls wearing hijabs.
Soon the protests spread, with students holding marches and shouting religious slogans.
One video of a lone Hijab-clad Muslim girl being heckled outside a college by a group of Hindu students in saffron scarves, shouting religious slogans, went viral on Tuesday. It shows the girl responding with shouts of the Muslim refrain "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) before she's escorted away by college staff.
"They started shouting 'Jai Shri Ram' [Hindu proclamation of faith], so I started screaming 'Allahu Akbar,'" Muskan, the Muslim girl, later told Indian news outlet NDTV. "We will continue to protest for the hijab."
On Wednesday, after hearing petitions challenging the hijab bans at colleges in the state, a judge at the Karnataka High Court said it was too serious a matter for a lone arbitrator to rule on, noting that: "These matters give rise to certain constitutional questions of seminal importance in view of certain aspects of personal law."
The court's Chief Justice will now appoint a multiple-judge bench to hear the case.
The hijab standoff has angered much of India's Muslim community, which, at approximately 200 million, is a minority in the country of almost 1.4 billion people.
Many believe Muslims have been marginalized in India for decades, but increasingly during the eight years of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tenure.
Two years ago, Modi faced violent protests by Muslims across the country when his government brought in a new citizenship law that singled out members of the religion.
© Provided by CBS News
Death toll climbs in India protests
India has repeatedly witnessed deadly Hindu-Muslim violence over the course of its 75-year history as an independent nation, with its politics and society deeply divided along religious lines.
That divide is generally highlighted, even exploited, around elections, when political parties try to polarize voters by focusing on religious issues. The current tension around the hijab comes ahead of elections in five states, including in the key state of Uttar Pradesh, where people start heading to the polls on Thursday.
Over the years, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accused of running an anti-Muslim campaign and backing violence against minorities, but it rejects all of the allegations.
India has repeatedly witnessed deadly Hindu-Muslim violence over the course of its 75-year history as an independent nation, with its politics and society deeply divided along religious lines.
That divide is generally highlighted, even exploited, around elections, when political parties try to polarize voters by focusing on religious issues. The current tension around the hijab comes ahead of elections in five states, including in the key state of Uttar Pradesh, where people start heading to the polls on Thursday.
Over the years, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accused of running an anti-Muslim campaign and backing violence against minorities, but it rejects all of the allegations.
India: Protests banned as hijab row escalates
Protests and violence over a ban on female students wearing the hijab in some schools led officials to close all educational institutions in a southern Indian state for three days.
Activists such as those from the National Students Unions of India will not be allowed to protest
The Indian city of Bangalore banned protests around schools and other educational institutions for two weeks on Wednesday.
The move comes just 24 hours after all high schools in Karnataka state closed their gates for the remainder of the week as a row over an Islamic headscarf ban intensified.
The southern Indian state, of which Bangalore is the capital, closed all educational institutions for three days beginning Wednesday, as protests and violence escalated over the decision of some colleges to prohibit female students from wearing the hijab or a headscarf in classrooms.
On Tuesday, clashes between Muslim students against the ban and those supporting it broke out. Stone-throwing, arson and baton charges by police took place in several towns in Karnataka state, NDTV news channel reported.
The debate in southern India is raging over whether the government can implement such a ban. Legal action, as well as angry protests, has been threatened against the local government.
'Horrifying' hijab ban, says prominent activist
Outrage at the ban has spilled over onto social media, with Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai tweeting her support for the young women's right to wear the hijab.
"College is forcing us to choose between studies and the hijab," she said. "Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying. Objectification of women persists — for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalization of Muslim women."
Footage has gone viral of one hijab-wearing student being pursued by Hindu men shouting "Jai Shri Ram" (Hail Lord Ram) as she arrives at PES College in the city of Mandya, around 100 kilometers (around 60 miles) southeast of Bangalore.
Activists, as well as many from India's 200 million-member minority Muslim community, say hate crimes against Muslims have increased since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014.
jsi/sms (AFP, Reuters, dpa)
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