Woman’s rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai waded into the ongoing hijab row in Karnataka on Tuesday, calling it ‘horrifying’.
Yousafzai urged Indian leaders to stop the “marginalisation of Muslim women”. She tweeted her outrage:
The row
The controversy in Karnataka erupted in December last year, when six Muslim girls at state-run Udupi Women’s Pre-University college were allegedly not allowed to enter the classroom wearing the hijab. Rudra Gowda, the principal of the college, who allegedly did not allow them to wear hijab in classrooms, said he had done so to ensure uniformity in classrooms.
Later, right-wing groups in Udupi and Chikkamagaluru objected to hijabs and the protests spread across the state. In retaliation, many students turned up in saffron scarves and Dalit students adopted blue scarves in support of hijab-wearing girls.
Issue escalates
As the issue continues to snowball, with the government and the high court being drawn into the fray and similar cases surfacing in Puducherry and Madhya Pradesh, a students’ outfit at Delhi University (DU) on Tuesday protested against the hijab restrictions in the Udupi college. The Muslim Students’ Federation protested outside the Arts Faculty in DU North Campus.
What now
The Karnataka High Court will continue hearing the hijab plea today. The court had yesterday appealed to the students to maintain peace. Meanwhile, the state government on Tuesday announced the closure of high schools and colleges for the next three days.
