Court orders pause in wearing religious clothes

NEW DELHI — A court in India told students on Thursday not to wear any religious clothing until it delivers a verdict on petitions seeking to overturn a ban on hijabs, headscarves used by Muslim women.

The court in the southern state of Karnataka is considering petitions filed by students challenging a ban on hijabs that some schools have implemented in recent weeks.

“We will pass an order. But until the matter is resolved, no student should insist on wearing religious dress,” the Press Trust of India news agency quoted Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi as saying. The court also directed the state to reopen schools and colleges which the chief minister had shut for three days as protests over the ban escalated this week.

The issue grabbed headlines last month when a governmentrun school in Karnataka’s Udupi district barred students wearing hijabs from entering classrooms, triggering protests outside the school gate.

More schools in the state followed with similar bans, forcing the state’s top court to intervene.

The uneasy standoff has raised fears among Muslim students who say they are being deprived of their religious rights in the Hindu-majority nation. On Monday, hundreds of students and parents took to the streets to protest the restriction.

The dispute in Karnataka has set off protests elsewhere in India. A number of demonstrators were detained in the capital, New Delhi, on Thursday, and students and activists have also marched in cities including Hyderabad and Kolkata in recent days.