Senior schools reopen in India’s Karnataka amid hijab row
Senior schools in India’s state of Karnataka have reopened a week after authorities shut them down in the face of growing protests against the imposition of a ban on the wearing of hijab, a headdress commonly worn by female Muslim students.
Students in olive-green uniforms -- some wearing the hijab -- walked hand-in-hand on Wednesday into the Government Girls Senior School PU in Udupi district, where the protests began this month, as male and female police officers stood guard.
All of the students were allowed, including the girls in hijabs, despite an illegal ruling proclaimed by the state's High Court last week that schools should ban any religious clothing in classrooms until further instructions.
Muslim families in Karnataka insist that the ban on the hijab marks yet another attempt by hardline Hindu nationalists to further marginalize Muslim communities in the country and has led to some schools refusing entry to girls and women wearing it.
Some Muslim students and parents staged protest rallies against the ban, drawing counter protests from radical Hindu students, who hung saffron-colored shawls -- commonly worn by Hindus -- around their necks.
"This is so unfair," student Afra Ajmal Asabi told reporters covering the protests, referring to the ban. "We've always been attending classes wearing the hijab."
The court is deliberating the recent hijab ban imposed by Karnataka authorities, marking the latest issue of contention involving India's Muslim minority, who make up over 13 percent of the Hindu-majority country's 1.35 billion population.
In Iran’s capital city of Tehran, a number of student organizations joined to issue a statement harshly condemning the hijab ban in India, demanding the Iranian Foreign Ministry to react strongly to the anti-Islam move in the South Asian country.
The southern state of Karnataka is governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's far-right Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and the furor comes as it campaigns for several important state assembly elections this year.
The court is due to hear further arguments on Wednesday as senior district official Kurma Rao M declared that talks were underway in the community on the court ruling. "We have held a meeting with all religious leaders, various stakeholders on the implementation of the court's interim order," he said.
Junior and middle schools reopened on Monday. Authorities had closed them too last week because of the protests.
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