Karnataka: Weird Turn to Hijab Controversy after Sikh Girl Refused to Remove Turban

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Feb 24: The controversy over wearing of hijabs in the classrooms by the Muslim girls in Karnataka has taken a weird turn after the authorities of a college in Bengaluru were forced to allow a Sikh girl to continue to wear her turban in the classroom and give a similar permission to the Muslim girls.

The apprehensions envisioned by the advocates of the petitioners, who had moved the Karnataka High Court for permission to wear hijab in the classrooms, has come true. The college in Bengaluru initially requested the Sikh girl to remove her turban but eventually had to allow her as well as Muslim students with headscarves after family of the Sikh girl refused to comply.

The advocates had told the High Court that the state government’s order to the students to strictly follow the dress code and stop wearing hijabs in the classrooms, could also affect the Sikh students wearing turbans as part of the religious practice.

In a temporary order pending the consideration of all petitions related to the hijab row, the Karnataka High Court had restrained all students in the state from wearing saffron shawls, scarves, hijab and any religious flag within the classroom earlier this month.

Authorities at the Mount Carmel PU College said they informed students about the court order when the educational institution reopened on February 16. However, when a senior government official visited the college earlier this week, he found a group of girls in the hijab and told them to follow the court order. The girls demanded that no students including the Sikh girl should be allowed to wear religious symbols.

“After the high court interim order came, we started to abide by that. We asked the students in hijab, to take off the hijab and attend classes. However, a few students had an issue with another Sikh student who is wearing the turban,” Sister Genevieve, Administrator, Mount Carmel PU College said. “And so, we requested the Sikh student to remove the turban so that there is uniformity. But after she informed us that since she was baptised, she cannot remove. And so, we let it be,” Sister Genevieve said.

According to sources, the girl’s family has decided that their daughter will not remove the turban and is taking legal opinion. Asking a member of the Sikh community to remove their turban is widely considered highly invasive. “We have not stopped any students at the gates for wearing the hijab. While most of the students have followed the order, a few students continue to sit inside the class wearing the hijab and we are counselling them,” Sister Genevieve added.

The controversy over the hijab erupted in Karnataka late last year after some college students in the Udupi district were stopped from wearing the religious headscarves in classrooms. The standoff quickly spread to other parts of the state and even beyond triggering demonstrations and ugly face-offs as some Hindu groups opposed to the hijab held protests in schools and colleges wearing saffron scarves.

On February 5, Karnataka banned “clothes that were against law and order” and on February 10 the High Court temporarily banned all religious outfits as it heard petitions challenging the restrictions. The petitioners, including a dozen Muslim female students, have told the court that wearing the hijab was a fundamental right guaranteed under India’s constitution and an essential practice of Islam. Some of them have argued that it was no different than turbans worn by Sikhs, bangles and ghoongats worn by Hindu women and the cross worn by Christians.

Karnataka’s advocate-general, Prabhuling Navadgi, has told the High Court there that those challenging the decision had not been able to prove that wearing the hijab was an essential religious practice in Islam. On Wednesday, the High Court clarified that the interim order banning hijabs and other religious clothing was applicable only to students. The clarification came after an advocate representing one of the petitioners said teachers too were being stopped at the gates.