Uttar Pradesh: The Hijab row has ignited again in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad after some girl students of the Hindu College were denied entry into the college for wearing ‘Burqa’ despite the prescribed uniform code for students there. The Muslim girls have alleged that the college was not letting them enter the campus wearing the Burqa and that college officials were compelling them to remove it.
The girls have claimed that their college was not letting them enter the college campus wearing a burqa and are compelling them to remove it at the entrance gate. On the said matter, a scuffle broke out between the students, the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha workers, and the college professors who remained adamant about sticking to the prescribed rules. On the Internet, a video of the incident from the Hindu college has gained popularity.
The college professor, Dr AP Singh, said that they had implemented a dress code for the students here, and anybody who refused to follow it would be barred from entering the college campus. To this, the members of Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha submitted a memorandum to include the burqa in the dress code for college and allow the girls to attend their classes wearing it.
A similar issue arose in Karnataka earlier in January 2022 when the massive Hijab protests broke out, where some students of Government Girls PU college in the Udupi District of the State alleged that they had been barred from attending classes. During the protests, some students claimed they were denied entry into the college for wearing Hijab.
Following this incident, students of different colleges arrived at Shanteshwar Education Trust in Vijayapura wearing saffron stoles. The situation was the same in several colleges in the Udupi District.
The pre-University education board had issued a circular informing students that they may only wear the school-approved uniform and that other forms of religion would not be permitted inside the colleges.
The matter was then taken up to the Karnataka High Court, which dismissed various petitions challenging a ban on hijabs in educational institutions and said that wearing a Hijab is not an essential religious practice of Islam.
On October 13, 2022, the Supreme Court issued a split decision in the Karnataka Hijab prohibition case after the case was brought before it.The arguments in the matter went on for ten days in which 21 lawyers from the petitioners’ side and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, Karnataka Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi argued for the respondents.
