India ban on hijab in class triggers nationwide unrest
Muslim homes stoned after murder of Hindu activist as other states threaten to introduce rule
Afreen Sheikh is being forced to choose between her education and her religion. When the 19-year-old Muslim arrived at college recently, a Hindu mob hurled stones and abuse at her for defying a ban by wearing a hijab to school.
“I was terrified,” she said. “I still can’t believe our Hindu classmates had come prepared to throw us out of the college. I thought they would kill us.”
Ms Sheikh, a biology student, is one of a number of young Indians caught up in a sectarian row prompted by India’s Hindu majority government outlawing the hijab in classrooms.
The ruling in the south-west state of Karnataka has ratcheted up tensions with Muslims, who make up 13 per cent of India’s 1.35 billion people.
Protests by Muslim students this month attracted counterdemonstrations by Hindus, many sporting saffron shawls, a holy colour in Hinduism.
When the ban came in, Ms Sheikh and six of her college friends agreed that they would remove their black burqa cloaks. However, they drew the line at also removing their hijab headscarves. The row has already triggered nationwide protests, with critics calling the move “unconstitutional and Islamophobic”. Opponents of the ban have complained that while officials have declared the hijab a religious garment that should not be worn in class, no similar order was made regarding Hindu students’ saffron robes.
Other states are also threatening to introduce their own restrictions. Malala Yousafza is among those to have voiced criticism of the rule, and the US government has waded in. “Religious freedom includes the ability to choose one’s religious attire,” tweeted Rashad Hussain, the state department’s ambassador for religious freedom. “Hijab bans in schools violate religious freedom and stigmatise and marginalise women and girls.”
Tensions rapidly escalated on Sunday night when an activist was murdered, leading to violent protests. Harsha, 23, a member of Bajrang Dal, a Right-wing Hindu group, was stabbed to death in the Shimoga district of Karnataka. His death provoked outrage from activists who targeted Muslim areas, pelting stones at houses and setting cars on fire.
Authorities have imposed curbs on public gatherings and ordered the closure of schools and colleges.
Karnataka, home to India’s IT hub of Bangalore, is a stronghold of prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). With several important state assembly elections looming this year, BJP officials have so far been unrepentant.
“We are only insisting on the uniform code in the college. Girls are allowed inside the campus with hijab but inside classroom they will have to remove it,” said BJP leader Raghupathi Bhat, who heads the committee entrusted to impose the ban.
The counter-demonstrations by Hindus, he said, were not intended as a provocation but merely a response to Muslim girls flouting the rules.
Critics of Mr Modi’s government say his rule has allowed a growing atmosphere of anti-muslim hostility. Mobs have lynched Muslims accused of selling cow beef and driven Muslim vendors out of Hindu neighbourhoods, while extremist Hindu religious leaders have called for violence against the Indian Muslim community. Hindu nationalists berate Muslims on TV.
Because of the tensions, schools across Karnataka have been largely shut in recent days. The South Asia State of Minorities Report 2020 found India has become a “dangerous and violent space for Muslim minorities” since the Modi government introduced amendments to the Citizenship Act in 2019 which opened a pathway for a category of illegal immigrants to legalise their status and become Indian citizens, but it excluded Muslims.
Al-rifa, a Muslim student, fears the Hijab ban could mean the end of her college career.
“Education and religion go parallel in our lives. Can we choose between our two eyes?” she asked.
“The Government is forcing us to keep our children away from education,” said Atiq-ur-rehman, 54, who took his daughter home after school authorities refused to let her sit an exam wearing a hijab.
“Let everyone have a choice to wear what they want. I want my daughter to have better education but that should not come at the cost of my religion.”
Some Muslims are now considering educating their children privately, he added, or getting their education at Muslim madrassa religious schools.
But Ms Sheikh, the first in her family to attend college, said her family had no financial option but to rely on the state system. She is now among the supporters to a legal petition challenging the ban in the Karnataka High Court, which will be heard today.