– Reshma Ravishanker

The Hijab row has now spread further with isolated debates about the issue being sounded in the other states as well.

The Hijab row began in Udupi district of Karnataka and where six students have been denied entry into a government girls PU college over a deliberation on whether or not hijab is part of the uniform. This issue has now been discussed across the country.

Around 200 women students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have extended their “unflinching and unconditional support” to Muslim students in Karnataka saying that prohibiting women from wearing hijab reflects the “patriarchal and Islamophobic tendencies” of the state and its institutions.

In a statement, the students said forcing Muslim women to give up their hijab is a clear violation of Article 25 of the Indian constitution which guarantees religious freedom, and forbidding them from entering the classroom infringes upon Article 21 (A) and Article 15, which guarantee the right to education and prohibit discrimination based on religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth respectively.

In the face of this toxic display of masculinity, the bigotry and Islamophobia and against the sustained attacks on the rights and safety of Muslim women, we the women students of JNU, extend our unflinching and unconditional solidarity and support to these brave Muslim women students in Karnataka and the choice of Muslim women to wear a hijab,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday condemned the row over Muslim girls’ rights to wear the hijab in educational institutions and said attempts are being made to inject communal venom in the minds of children.

“Our educational institutions should become a fertile ground for secularism. Instead, efforts are on to inject communal venom in the minds of the children. It is very dangerous,” the Chief Minister said, addressing the media.

Extending their support to the wearing of hijab, a group of students from colleges in Hyderabad took out protest rallies, while a group of women also held a demonstration and expressed their solidarity with the girl students of Karnataka. Also, over 500 students of Kolkata’s Aliah University on Wednesday took out a rally in Park Circus area, with many women wearing hijab, amid a row over sporting the headscarf in Karnataka.

Also read: Karnataka: Hijab clad girl heckled by boys in saffron scarves