Md Nazrul: A debate over the hijab — a headscarf worn by Muslim women — has caused a stand-off at a women’s college in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, reports BBC online on Saturday.
Six teenage students — at a government-run pre-university college, equivalent to a high school — have alleged that they have been barred from classes for weeks because they insist on wearing a hijab.
The college said that it had only asked the students to remove the hijab inside the classroom — they can still wear it around the campus. The six girls wear the college uniform — a loose tunic with pants and a shawl — but said they should also be allowed to cover their hair.
‘We have a few male teachers. We need to cover our hair before men. That is why we wear a hijab,’ Almas AH, one of the students, told BBC Hindi.
It’s not unusual to see women wearing hijabs and burkas — which cover the face and body — in India, where public displays of faith are commonplace. But an increasingly polarised atmosphere in recent years has led to minorities — Muslims and Christians — feeling threatened. And this particular row is unfolding in Udupi, on