Will fight for our rights: Petitioners after Karnataka High Court stays ban on hijab

The Karnataka High Court today ruled that hijab is not a part of the essential religious practice in Islam, upholding the ban on wearing hijab in schools and colleges imposed by the state.

The young petitioners, who knocked on the doors of the Karnataka High Court against the state’s ban on hijab in schools and other educational institutions, spoke to the media after the verdict favoured the ban. “Hijab is my essential religious practice”, one of the petitioners contended. They called the verdict “unconstitutional”.

“My personal opinion is that I will not go to college and will fight to get my rights,” she said.

The petitioners, from Karnataka’s Udupi, went to court after a massive row erupted on January 1, 2022, when some Muslim students of a pre-university college in the city, were not allowed to attend classes in hijab, since it was against the prescribed rules of the college. The protests soon spread to other colleges and districts of the state.

Some college students in Karnataka's Koppa district wore saffron scarves to protest against Muslim girls wearing hijab inside classrooms. Within days, the protests spread to colleges in Mangaluru.

Also Read: | Karnataka hijab ban to stay, high court says wearing it is not part of essential religious practice

Talking about how the situation spiraled, a petitioner said, “At first, we were not wearing them. In the first Pre-University Course - class 11 in Karnataka, the lecturer asked me to remove it. But seeing my seniors wearing the hijab, I questioned this. Then, lockdown happened. When classes began, they didn’t allow us to wear them. Then our parents came to speak with the principal and said that we would wear a hijab, whatever the colour. But we got no positive response.”

“We tried all the way to convince the principal.”