The row has drawn in Malala Yousafzai, the campaigner for
girls’ education and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who survived being shot aged 15
by a Taliban gunman in her native Pakistan in 2012, who asked Indian leaders in
a tweet to “stop the marginalisation of Muslim women”.
Local media reported last week that several schools in
Karnataka had denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the hijab citing an education
ministry order, prompting protests from parents and students.
Hindu students mounted counter-protests, flocking to schools
in recent days in support of the ban, forcing the Karnataka state government to
shut schools and colleges for three days to ease tensions between the two
communities.
In one incident in a video widely shared online, a lone
Muslim student wearing the hijab is surrounded by Hindu male youths shouting
religious slogans while trying to enter her school in Karnataka.
The protesting students in Kolkata on Wednesday were
predominantly women wearing hijabs, a Reuters eyewitness said, adding the
demonstrations were without incident. The students told Reuters that they plan
to reconvene on Thursday.
“We will keep protesting until the government stops
insulting the students,” said Tasmeen Sultana, one of the protestors.
“We want our fundamental rights back…you cannot take away our
rights.
Protests have also been planned on Wednesday in India’s
capital New Delhi.
“Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is
horrifying. Objectification of women persists — for wearing less or more,”
Yousafzai said in a tweet late on Tuesday.
The government of Karnataka, where 12% of the population is
Muslim and which is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has said in an order that students should follow
dress codes set by schools.
Opposition parties and critics accuse the BJP government at
federal and state level of discriminating against the minority Muslim
population. Modi has defended his record and says his economic and social
policies benefit all Indians.
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