Hijab row: Muslim women conduct protest rally in Kochi
Scores of hijab-wearing women came together at a protest rally and meeting conducted under the banner of Girls Islamic Organisation (GIO) at Ernakulam on Saturday evening. Raising slogans against the hijab ban, they tore up circulars issued by the Karnataka government on school uniforms and Kerala government on student police cadets, which imposed restrictions on using hijab with the uniform.
Speaking as a chief guest at the event, CA Shabna, a law college student from Kerala studying in Karnataka who was part of the recent Hijab agitation, narrated that she was sidelined at her college for opposing the hijab ban. “During last year’s exam, teachers and principal insisted that I should remove my hijab, but I didn’t relent. When I returned after the lockdown, I noticed a change in the attitude of teachers and students. They were avoiding me and even asked my roommate to shift from my room,” she said.
“I asked our principal why he didn’t let me know about the hijab ban when I first came to the college, wearing a hijab,” she said. Social activist Lubna Sarwath, who delivered the keynote address, said Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh surpassed various hurdles to educate the marginalised. “They also wore a pallu or scarf around their head. This has been part of our country for a long time. Covering your head using a scarf or hijab is not a sign of social disadvantage,” she said, adding that denying education in the name of hijab was a major injustice.
Sarwath said that hijab was not an identity, but an attire. “Quran has mentioned kindness, ability to part with things dear to us, honesty etc as characteristics of a person. That is our identity. Hijab is part of our attire. It conveys a message that we don’t want to display our beauty unnecessarily. Not just Muslims, any woman can wear it,” she said. GIO Karnataka president Sumayya Roshan gave her take on the hijab row in Karnataka and how the hijab-wearing students were sidelined at the campuses
Courtesy : News9Live
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