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Over the past month, several government-run educational institutions in India's Karnataka state have banned Muslim female students from wearing the hijab, or headscarf. The state government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has backed the discriminatory ban, passing a directive last week saying, "clothes which disturb equality, integrity, and public law and order should not be worn."

Amid increasing tensions and protests between Hindu and Muslim students around the hijab in schools, Karnataka authorities have shut down schools and colleges for three days. On February 8, as the Karnataka High Court heard petitions by Muslim students supporting the right to wear the hijab, viral videos emerged of a mob of Hindu youth heckling a female Muslim student for wearing one. A day later, according to a news report, admission forms of six female Muslim students at the forefront of the protests, including their phone numbers and home addresses, were leaked online.

The hijab ban violates India's obligations under international human rights law, which guarantees the rights to freely manifest one's religious beliefs, to freedom of expression, and to education without discrimination. Likewise, forcing women and girls to wear religious garments also violates religious freedom and privacy rights under international law.

The hijab ban is the latest example of Indian authorities increasingly seeking to marginalize Muslims, exposing them to heightened violence. At the national and state levels, BJP governments have adopted a slew of laws and policies that systematically discriminate against religious minorities and vulnerable communities, especially Muslims.

In December 2021, Hindu ultra-nationalists, many with links to the BJP, held a three-day religious convention in Uttar Pradesh in which speakers openly called for the killing of Muslims. In Haryana state, the BJP chief minister backed Hindu vigilantes demanding that Muslim prayers in public spaces be stopped. Working-class Muslims are often beaten up, threatened, and harassed with impunity. Photographs of hundreds of prominent educated Muslim women have been displayed on apps saying they were for sale, to humiliate, degrade, and intimidate them.

This all comes from a government that says it supports girls' " education and participation." It needs to act on those words, ensure that schools are inclusive spaces, and safeguard girls' right to wear a hijab free of intimidation.

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Hijab Ban in India Sparks Outrage, Protests

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Over the past month, several government-run educational institutions in India's Karnataka state have banned Muslim female students from wearing the hijab, or headscarf. The state government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has backed the discriminatory ban, passing a directive last week saying, "clothes which disturb equality, integrity, and public law and order should not be worn."

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Muslim students from several parts of Karnataka on Wednesday took to the streets to protest the Karnataka high court order restricting the wearing of the hijab in educational institutions, deeming it not an "essential religious practice" in Islam.

"We will continue the fight. #HijabisMyRight," read the poster of a student from Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College in Ujjire in Dakshina Kannada, about 90 km from Udupi district, the epicentre of the original protests by students seeking to wear the hijab.

'Hijab Ban is unconstitutional hence unacceptable," read another placard held by a student in Thumbe town in Dakshina Kannada. A third read: "High court didn't provide justice, but just a verdict".

Similar protests were seen across Karnataka.

"We want education and hijab. That is all. We have exams on (March) 24 but they (the schools) are not taking classes at all. We don't know what to write for these exams. It's not that we do not want to go. We will go but we need the hijab," said a bunch of at least 10 students in Karnataka's Hassan district.
Also Read | Give us time: Supreme Court on hijab appeal; lawyer says urgent because of exams
The protests came a day after a three-judge bench comprising chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, justice Krishna S Dixit and justice JM Khazi delivered a 129-page verdict in the contentious case. The petitioners have now approached the Supreme Court.

In December 2021, at least eight Muslim students of Government Girls Pre-University College in Udupi were stopped from entering class wearing the hijab. On January 1, the college development committee (CDC) passed an order banning the hijab inside campuses.

By February, as controversy spread across the state, there were counter protests with some students wearing saffron shawls.

While the issue was first raised in Udupi's government college, its impact has been felt across the state's educational institutions. Many students have since been forced to choose between religion or education.

The Muslim Okkuta, an umbrella organisation, on Wednesday said that the HC order on the Hijab was "dangerous". "The HC has said that Purdah is not part of the basic order of Islam. This is against the Quran, Hadees and the entire Muslim and Islamic history. We are sad about this," Maulana Abdul Lateef Madani, a member of the organisation said in Udupi on Wednesday.

The six original petitioners on Tuesday called the HC order as "unconstitutional" and "wrong", adding to the growing angst against them.

Shopkeepers reportedly from the Muslim community in Karnataka's Bhatkal town on Wednesday shut all businesses in protest against the high court verdict on the hijab. The high court, while dismissing a batch of petitions, ruled that wearing a hijab is not an essential practice of Islam and upheld a state government order on a uniform in educational institutions.
Also Read | Hijab ban: Cleric calls for day-long Karnataka bandh tomorrow against HC order
The Bhatkal town, about 90 kms from Udupi, wore a deserted look as the majority of the shops pulled down their shutters. "People have voluntarily closed down shops for a day. People from the Muslim community have shut down shops," Dr Haneef Shobab, a prominent doctor from the region, said.

"The order that came from Karnataka HC, we feel it was an interference with our religion and our sentiments are hurt. To express this, we have voluntarily have closed shops to do a symbolic protest," he added.

"There are about 300-350 shops owned by Muslims all of them closed their shops," Quamruddin Mashayad, a chicken shop owner, told HT.

The police in Bhatkal have filed cases against Popular Front of India (PFI) for allegedly attempted to close shops by force, IANS reported on Wednesday. Reports indicated that cases filed charges under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting) and 290 (public nuisance) of the Indian Penal Code. The activist who were booked were Azeem Ahmad, Mohiddeen Abeer, Shareek and advocate Taimur Hussain Gawayi.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from the constituency said that the bandh was enforced by the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). "SDPI has enforced the Bandh by force. Yesterday they tried to do it but were unable to, so they have gone ahead today," Sunil Nayak, the BJP MLA from Bhatkal, said.

The SDPI has denied the charges. "They (BJP) have no other work. Summer season has started and we do not have water in rural areas and instead of thinking about these, they are talking about us. The Bandh was a decision taken by all Muslim organisations. There was nothing forceful. Those who were not satisfied, not only Muslims, all Indians, they have expressed their protest without violence, they have closed their establishments," Abrar Ahmed, a SDPI officer bearer told HT.

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Students protest against Karnataka high court ruling on hijab ban

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"We will continue the fight. #HijabisMyRight," read the poster of a student from Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College in Ujjire in Dakshina Kannada, about 90 km from Udupi district, the epicentre of the original protests by students seeking to wear the hijab.

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Many fear that the headscarf ban in educational institutions will intensify persecution of minority groups by far-right Hindu nationalists forces within the country

April 05, 2022 by Umer Beigh
The verdict by a court in the Indian State of Karnataka in mid-March against the wearing of headscarves or the Hijab across colleges, preventing Muslim girls from entering educational premises with a certain dress code, has created a political furor in the country.

Since the verdict was announced on March 15, several protest actions have been carried out such as a complete strike in the State of Karnataka on March 17.

For many women activists the verdict is seen as a major disappointment and betrayal by the judicial system. Many fear that the "headscarf ban" will only add to the growing hostility against the minority Muslim community and further the selective targeting of Muslim women in online hate campaigns.

Teenager Aliya Assadi was among the students who filed the petition challenging the decision of the Karnataka government to prescribe a uniform in educational institutions. The petition had argued that the decision goes against the right to education and the right to practice one's faith as guaranteed in the Indian constitution.

The affected girl students had placed their hope in the judiciary and the constitution, but it was a "case of betrayal for us," Aliya told reporters.

"I was made to realize I am a Muslim... I had read on social media the discrimination that Muslims in the country face but now I have experienced it for the first time," 19-year-old student Al-Rifa after she was barred from entering the Bhandarkar's college in Karnataka wearing a headscarf.

Similarly, many other students who have been wearing the headscarf as part of their "religious obligation" have now been asked to remove them if they want to attend lectures. "The administration isn't allowing us inside the classes if we don't remove the hijab, personally for me it is weird. We were first optimistic that the court would favor our pleas. Unfortunately, the political pressure created in the country by different forces is so high even the courts are favoring the majority without realizing the complications it will have for us," 16-year-old Sana told local media.

The Hijab row

In January, a major controversy erupted in the Udupi district of Karnataka when a government-run college stopped six teenage girls wearing headscarves from attending classes claiming that it violated school uniform guidelines.

The restriction invoked protests in the campus by the students which spread to other educational institutions. The hijab-wearing students demonstrated for days outside the gates of the college. While the administration later allowed them inside the campus, they were made to sit in separate classrooms with no lectures organized for them.

Amid the rising tensions, a number of Hindu far-right groups rallied in support of the restrictions imposed on Muslim women saying that if the administration permits Hijabs inside schools, Hindu students should also be allowed to wear saffron shawls (a color used by Hindu nationalists).

Some of the protests in campuses and in some other States were disrupted by the police which triggered stone pelting incidents and tear gas shelling on the crowds.

The controversy became so intense that the Karnataka State authorities had to shut down schools and colleges for three days and restrict gatherings near educational institutions for two weeks.

Online hate campaigns

The ban on wearing the Hijab is being viewed as a coercive way to force Muslim women to renounce their religious practices and adhere to the majoritarian identity which is slowly becoming synonymous with the Hindu identity.

According to Tayyaba Ahmad, a geography student at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, the communal 'Jai Shri Ram' chants by Hindutva supporters during the Hijab row inside campuses in Karnataka reinforced the narrative that right-wing Hindu nationalists want the minorities cornered and submissive and accept the religious hegemony in the country.

Several commentators have called the Hijab controversy a political gimmick by far-right Hindu nationalist groups to spread propaganda under the pretext of fighting extremism, turning the agency of Muslim women as a cannon fodder for a certain political agenda.

"There is no concept of respecting the agency of the women, they aren't given this choice by far-right Hindu groups who continue to exploit the victimization of Muslim women in order to amplify their narrative of Hindutva which excludes minorities," Tayyaba told Peoples Dispatch .

There has been a pattern of online hate campaigns filled with communal slurs and misogynist bullying from radical Hindu right-wing groups targeting Muslims women in India. One example is the fake online app a derogatory Hindi term used by right-wing misogynists to describe Muslim women in the country.

The fake auction app listed around 100 women for 'sale', including journalists, actors, artists, activists and several other noted figures. Most of the women targeted through the app have been outspoken critics of prime minister Narendra Modi and his government. Prior to this app, another auction list insulting Muslim women appeared in July 2021 on a web application named Sulli Deals , which remained available for weeks before it was taken down.

Likewise, in another attempt to target Muslim women, a right-wing Hindutva channel called Liberal Doge Live streamed photos of Muslim women on the festival of Eid with a description in Hindi saying: "Today, we will stalk women with our eyes filled with lust."

Such controversies that polarize society are nothing but another attempt to saffronize Indian society and polity. As journalist Subhash Gatade , "it is an attempt to show Muslims their place in ' New India '. The issue hit national headlines, sending a message that the days of Sarv Dharm Sambhav are over; India has decisively entered the phase of Hindu Rashtra, wherein minorities live on the sufferance of the majority or "thanks to the kindness and generosity of Hindus."

"Earlier the attacks on women belonging to minority communities would come from passive sources. Today it is open, direct and blatantly communal," Tayyaba remarked.

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Controversial Hijab ban in India a form of "religious apartheid" : Peoples Dispatch

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Many fear that the headscarf ban in educational institutions will intensify persecution of minority groups by far-right Hindu nationalists forces within the country April 05, 2022 by Umer Beigh The verdict by a court in the Indian State of Karnataka in mid-March against the wearing of headscarves or the Hijab across colleges, preventing Muslim girls from entering educational premises with a certain dress code, has created a political furor in the country.