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Journalism of Courage
This is an archive article published on February 17, 2022
Karnataka education minister meets Muslim lawmakers over hijab row
BC Nagesh says the government is waiting for the high court's final order to revise dress codes for educational institutions.
Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh.
Karnataka Education Minister BC Nagesh held a meeting with Muslim legislators on Thursday in an effort to get Muslim girls to return to classrooms by adhering to the high court order that temporarily barred the hijab and other religious clothing in classes.
“There is a need for a revised uniform policy. A lot of controversy has occurred at present. We will wait for the HC order to come up with a new policy,” said Nagesh, whose office described the interaction as a “goodwill meeting”.
Schools and colleges reopened this week after being closed on February 9 because of the tension over the hijab ban imposed by the institutions as part of dress codes. But Muslim girls were kept out of classrooms in many places for wearing headscarves after state authorities interpreted the Karnataka High Court’s interim order as a ban on the hijab in all educational institutions.
In its February 10 order, the Karnataka High Court restrained “all the students regardless of their religion or faith from wearing saffron (bhagwa) shawls, scarves, hijab, religious flags and the like, within the classroom, until further orders.” It also went on to add that the order “is confined to such institutions wherein the college development committees have prescribed the student dress code/uniform”.
Despite the restrictions being applicable only to colleges where uniforms bar such religious clothing, the hijab has effectively been banned in many districts. On Wednesday many degree colleges did not allow Muslim girls to attend classes with the hijab.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, however, said the state was adhering to the high court’s interim order. “The high court order will be followed in all colleges,” Bommai told the Assembly after Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Wednesday raised the issue of Muslim students being barred from classes. Bommai also stated that as per the high court order, the restrictions applied to pre-university colleges where uniforms without headscarves have been prescribed.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
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