Hijab row: 200 JNU women students extend solidarity to Muslim students in Karnataka
New Delhi, Feb 9: Around 200 women students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have extended their "unflinching and unconditional support" to Muslim students in Karnataka, saying prohibiting women from wearing hijab reflects the "patriarchal and Islamophobic tendencies" of the state and its institutions.
In a statement, the students said forcing Muslim women to give up their hijab is a clear violation of Article 25 of the Indian constitution which guarantees religious freedom, and forbidding them from entering the classroom infringes upon Article 21 (A) and Article 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, the Karnataka government on Tuesday declared a holiday to all high schools and colleges in the state for three days.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
