India’s southern Karnataka state has ordered schools and colleges to shut for three days, after protests erupted in response to some schools refusing entry to students wearing the hijab.
The controversy comes as opposition parties and critics accuse the government at federal and state levels of discriminating against religious minorities and running the risk of stoking violence.
The Karnataka High Court is considering a challenge to the ban.
What sparked the protests in the first place?
A government-run all-girls high school in the coastal city of Udupi last month barred Muslim students from entering classrooms while wearing hijabs, a headscarf used by Muslim women.
The students began camping outside school as staff maintained they were defying uniform rules.
Over the following weeks, more schools in the state began implementing similar bans on Hijabs.
The story has gained national media attention with the hashtag #HijabIsOurRight circulating widely on social media.
What action have the Muslim students taken?
The Muslim students say they are being deprived of their religious rights.
On Monday, hundreds of them, including their parents, took to the streets against the restrictions, demanding that students should be allowed to attend classes even if they are wearing hijab.
“What we are witnessing is a form of religious apartheid. The decree is discriminatory and it disproportionately affects Muslim women,” said AH Almas, an 18-year-old student who has been part of the weeks-long protests.
One of the students has also filed a petition to the Karnataka High Court.
How have Hindu students responded?
Tensions have frayed further in recent days in Udupi and elsewhere in majority Hindu Karnataka as groups of students with saffron shawls — typically worn by Hindus — thronged into classrooms to show their support of their schools’ hijab ban.
They have also chanted praises to Hindu gods, while protesting against the Muslim girls’ choice of headgear.
Some schools have reportedly banned the shawls as well.
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What has the government said?
The government of Karnataka, which is governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said in an order on February 5 that all schools should follow dress codes set by management.
BC Nagesh, the education minister of Karnataka who tweeted the order, said school dress codes had been set after reviewing court decisions from across the country.
He told the BBC he supported colleges who said both saffron scarves and headscarves should be banned on campuses.
Following the protests, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday ordered schools and colleges to shut for three days.
“I appeal to all the students, teachers and management of schools and colleges as well as people of Karnataka to maintain peace and harmony,” he said.
He earlier told reporters that “those unwilling to follow uniform dress code can explore other options”.
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What have Muslim leaders said?
Rights activists, including Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, have voiced concerns that the decree risks raising Islamophobia.
They say violence and hate speech against Muslims have increased under Mr Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party.
“Singling out hijab for criticism is unfair and discriminatory. Those opposing it are on record decrying secularism and for openly espousing majoritarianism,” said Zakia Soman, founder of a Muslim women’s group, the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan.
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Others contend it underscores the potential isolation and marginalisation of Muslims who feel Mr Modi and the BJP are slowly isolating them, compounding an already growing unease felt by the minority community, in a multicultural country that has guarantees of religious freedom enshrined in its constitution.
“What we are seeing is an attempt to invisibilise Muslim women and push them out of public spaces,” said Afreen Fatima, a New Delhi-based student activist.
She said the ban was the culmination of a growing climate of hate against Muslims “which has now manifested itself in the physical realm”.
What’s happening with the court case?
The student who filed the high court challenge said in her petition that wearing the hijab was a fundamental right to religion guaranteed by the constitution.
A hearing in the state capital Bengaluru began on Tuesday.
No final order was passed but the judge appealed for peace and calm, with the hearing continuing on Wednesday.
ABC/wires
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