Karnataka hijab row emerges in burqa form in Jaipur

Jaipur: Some Muslim girls and their relatives held a demonstration at a private college at Chaksu in Jaipur district on Friday when the students were not allowed to attend classes wearing burqas.

While the college authorities maintained the girls have begun coming in burqas only for the last four or five days, the students and their parents said they had been attending classes in burqas for the last three years and they never objected to it.

But they suddenly stopped them from attending classes in burqas or even wearing hijab, they said.

The college authorities, however, said they never stopped girls from wearing hijab or headscarves.

Police reached the college and intervened in the matter. The college administration said wearing burqas does not violate only the dress code, which has been in the college for six to seven years but it also encourages other students to come to the college without a uniform which affects the atmosphere of study.

”Some of the girls began coming to the college in burqas for the last three to four days. Seeing them, some other students too came to the college without uniform on Thursday,” said Assistant Director Sumit Sharma of Kasturi Devi college in Chaksu.

This forced us to allow around 50 students to attend classes without uniforms on Thursday, Sharma added.

“Accordingly, we asked them to come to the college in proper uniform. Today, around five girls again came in burqas. When we did not allow them, they called their relatives who gathered outside the college and demonstrated. Ten to 15 of them entered the college and forced us to allow the girls in burqas,” he said.

In a video of the incident, circulated on social media, the girls, seen in burqas, and their relatives are heard arguing with a college staffer that the girls had been wearing burqa for the last three years and asking them why were they now being stopped from wearing them.

One of the men is also seen shouting that the college will have to allow the girl in whatever dress they come to the college. Sharma also refuted parents allegation that the college has stopped the girls from wearing hijab.

“They also alleged that we were not allowing hijab. It is wrong. Some students often attend classes wearing hijab but with the uniform. We never had an objection to the hijab but wearing a burqa instead of the uniform is a totally different thing,” he said.

On the issue, the police initially said the girls’ relatives also alleged that the college administration did not allow them to wear hijab.

“Ten to 12 Muslim girls of BA first and second year reached the college wearing burqas and the college administration did not allow them to enter the college after which their family reached the college and protested,” Sub Inspector Jitendra of the Chaksu police station said.

He said that the matter was resolved through dialogue.

“The college administration has allowed girl students to come in decent clothes on the day of dress-off. For the rest of the day, the girls were asked to be present in the uniform prescribed by the college,” he said. The hijab row started in Karnataka in December-end when a few students of a government pre-university college in Udupi who attended classes wearing headscarves were asked to leave the campus. The matter then spread to different parts of the state, with youngsters, backed by right-wing outfits, responding by wearing saffron scarves.

With the protests taking a violent turn at some places earlier this week, the state government on Tuesday declared a three-day holiday for the institutions.