Hijab row: 200 JNU women students show their support for Muslim students in Karnataka

Hijab row: 200 JNU women students show their support for Muslim students in Karnataka

PTIUpdated: Thursday, February 10, 2022, 10:01 AM IST
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New Delhi: Around 200 women students at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have expressed their "unflinching and unconditional support" for Muslim students in Karnataka, claiming that prohibiting women from wearing hijab reflects the state's and its institutions' "patriarchal and Islamophobic inclinations."

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

Last week, the Karnataka government issued an order making uniforms prescribed by it or management of private institutions mandatory for its students at schools and pre-university colleges across the state.

Protests erupted in the state over students being denied entry to educational institutions due to the hijab.

"We, the women students of JNU, uphold the right of these women to practice their religion and their choice to wear or not wear a hijab, along with their right to education. Disciplining these women, on their choice of clothing and prohibiting them from wearing a hijab reflects the patriarchal and Islamophobic tendencies of the state and its institutions.

"If the choice to not wear a hijab is endorsed in the light of empowerment, one cannot exhibit condescending attitude against one's choice of wearing a hijab," the statement read.

The JNU students pointed out that the attempt of these Muslim students to register their protest is "being criminalized as part of a theory of larger conspiracy".

"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.

As protests for and against wearing of the headscarf by Muslim women students in class-rooms intensified in different parts of Karnataka and turned violent in some places. On Tuesday, the Karnataka government declared a holiday to all high schools and colleges in the state for three days.

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