Ban on hijab leaves India divided

(15 Mar 2022) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4370895

Muslim students have found themselves at the center of a stormy debate over a ban on the hijab in schools in Karnataka State in Southern India.
They try to enter their schools and colleges with the religious headscarf, like they always have, but are now turned away by the police who guard the gates.
Six students had sued to overturn the state's ban, arguing it violates their rights to education and religious freedom, but the High Court on Tuesday upheld the ban saying the Muslim headscarf is not an essential religious practice of Islam.
The issue has become a flashpoint for India's Muslim community, who fear they are being shunted aside as a minority and see hijab restrictions as a worrying escalation of Hindu nationalism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
At the age of 12, Aliya Assadi wore a hijab while representing her southern Indian state at a karate competition. She won gold.
Five years later she tried to wear one to her junior college, the equivalent of a U.S. high school. She never made it past the campus gate, turned away under a new policy barring the religious headgear.
The furor began in January in India, where staff at a government-run junior college in Udupi, a coastal city in Karnataka, began refusing admission to girls who showed up in a hijab.
They said the girls were violating the uniform code.
To quell tensions, the state, governed by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, shut schools and colleges for three days.
It then imposed a state-wide ban on the hijab in classes, saying "religious clothing" in government-run schools "disturbs equality, integrity and public law and order."
Some students gave in and attended with their heads uncovered.
Others refused and have been barred from school for nearly two months — students like Ayesha Anwar, an 18-year-old in Udupi who has missed exams and is falling behind her peers.
"Why should we remove our hijab just to get an education?" Anwar asks. "Aren't there other people who are getting their education while wearing their religious stuff like, the 'bindi' (red dot on the forehead) or the threads on their hands and legs. That is visible. Aren't they going to the classes, aren't they attending the classes. Why is it just us?"
The hijab is worn by many Muslim women to maintain modesty or as a religious symbol, often seen as not just clothing but something mandated by their faith.
Opponents consider it a symbol of oppression, imposed on women. Hijab supporters deny that and say it has different meanings depending on the individual, including as a proud expression of Muslim identity.
Critics of Modi say India has steadily drifted from its commitment to secularism and today is deeply fractured along religious lines.
Since coming into office in 2014, Modi's government has passed a raft of laws that opponents call anti-Muslim, though his party rejects accusations of being discriminatory.
Meanwhile calls for violence against Muslims have moved from society's fringes toward the mainstream.
Muslim students allege that behind the counterprotests in Karnataka was Hindu Jagran Vedike, a nationalist group associated with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a far-right Hindu organization ideologically linked to Modi's political party.
"They are demanding for hijab right now. Tomorrow they will want (space) to pray. Later they will demand for a separate classroom in schools. How can this be allowed? What happens to uniformity and dress code?," Mahesh Bailur, a senior member of Hindu Jagran Vedike said.

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