Hindu groups seek India ban on hijab after court verdict

On Mar 16, 2022

Hindu Hardline groups are demanding restrictions on wearing the hijab in classrooms in more Indian states after a court upheld a ban on the traditional Islamic head-scarf in Karnataka state.

The Karnataka High Court choice on Tuesday, backing the southern state’s ban on the hijab in February, has additionally been welcomed by prime federal ministers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

According to Modi, “College students ought to keep away from carrying non secular clothes in class.”

“We are a Hindu nation and we don’t need to see any form of non secular outfit in academic institutes of the nation,” mentioned Rishi Trivedi, president of the Hindu-first group Akhil Bharat Hindu MahaSabha.

“We welcome the court verdict and need the identical rule to be adopted all through the nation.”

A state minister and a bureaucrat, talking on situation of anonymity, mentioned there was no instant plan to ban the hijab in colleges.

Ayesha Hajeera Almas, who had challenged the Karnataka ban in court and is now contemplating approaching the nation’s highest court to get the ban overturned mentioned, there’s a actual concern that the hijab ban will now go nationwide.

The 18-year-old mentioned she has not attended faculty since late December after its authorities barred Muslim ladies from carrying the hijab, even earlier than the state-wide ban got here in early February.

“Increasingly, we really feel we live in an India, the place its residents are usually not handled equally.

“I’m preventing for myself, preventing for my sisters, preventing for my faith. I’m scared that there might be adjustments like this in the entire nation. But I hope it doesn’t occur,” Almas mentioned.

Reuters