Over the controversial Hijab row the Karnataka High Court had yesterday dismissed petitions challenging the ban on headscarves in some educational institutes in the southern state, AIMIM chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi said that all religious symbols would now be permitted in these institutes except the hijab.
According to a report, the AIMIM chief said, “I disagree with the court judgment, like I disagreed with the Supreme Court’s verdict on Ram mandir. It is my right to disagree with the court. Now, all religious symbols will be allowed in schools except the hijab. Earlier, a BJP minister in Karnataka had said institutes shouldn’t stop girls if they wear sindoor.”
Commenting on the judgement, he said, "the court had referred to ‘qualified spaces’ where some restrictions on freedoms can be imposed in order to ensure discipline." These include jails, army camps and schools, as per the judgment, Owaisi said.
“How can the court compare schools to jails,” he asked.
Further, he added, “Aren’t Diwali pujas held at police stations? Isn’t the police station a qualified space? So many judges wear tilak and come to court. Is that not a problem?”
Reacting to this, Owaisi said the court had framed the wrong question. “Will the court decide what an essential practice is? Or religious scholars? The court said no maulana filed an affidavit declaring hijab is essential. Had we known, we could have got all the maulanas to give their opinion!”
Owaisi also said that the Constitution keeps stressing on pluralism and diversity as opposed to uniformity and homogeneity.
“The girls are not against the uniform. They just want to wear hijab with their uniform. What’s the harm? In Christian schools in UK, girls are allowed to wear hijabs,” he said.
The Hijab row had erupted in January this year when the Government PU College in Udupi allegedly barred six girls wearing the hijab from entering. Following this, the girls sat in protest outside college over being denied entry.
After this, boys of several colleges in Udupi started attending classes wearing saffron scarves. This protest spread to other parts of the state as well leading to protests and agitations in several places in Karnataka. As a result, the Karnataka government said that all students must adhere to the uniform and banned both hijab and saffron scarves till an expert committee decided on the issue.
