Ongoing Hijab row began from the Udupi,Karnataka, India.On January 2022, when six Muslim girls students of a college in Udupi were not allowed to attend classes wearing hijab. After that the students held a press conference, where they said that permission was sought but college authorities refused to let them enter the classroom with hijab. Muslim students started protest against college authorities, which soon snowballed into a statewide issue. Several videos of the protests emerged from different places. In one video when a Muslim girl was entering in her college in Mandya, a group of make students wearing saffron scarf heckled her and shouted slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”. She shouted back at them: “Allah hu Akbar!”. On 26 January 2022 the Karnataka government set up an expert committee to resolve the issue. On 5 February 2022,the Karnataka state government issued an order stating that uniforms must be worn compulsorily where policies exist and no exception can be made for the wearing hijab. After that Matter reached to court as Several petitions were filed in the Karnataka High Court on January 31 in which Muslim students sought the right to wear Hijabs in classrooms under Article 14, Article 19 and Article 25 of the Indian Constitution. Petioners said that “wearing of hijab is a necessary religious practice as it’s command from Allah and that action of the state government amounted to hostile discrimination based on religion but the Karnataka government claimed that educational institutions can impose dress code prohibiting religious attire to ensure secular education. On 10 February 2022 the full bench had passed an interim order saying that pending consideration of these petitions,students regardless of their religion or faith are restrained from wearing saffron shawls,Hijab etc. within the classroom, until further orders.The order was implemented in all schools and colleges across Karnataka, with students,and in some cases teachers being asked to remove hijabs and burqas outside the school gates in Karnataka, India. On 15 march 2022 the Karnataka High Court delivered it’s verdict by upholding the restrictions on hijab. Karnataka High Court ruled that Hijab is not an essential practice in Islam. After this the matter reached to The Supreme Court of India where the Supreme Court of India rejected the petitions demanding for urgent hearing of the case. On 26 April 2022,Chief Justice of India Ramana assured that the pleas challenging the verdict of the High Court would be listed for hearing in the Supreme Court. After this a panel of two judges returned a split decision in October where one judge Hemant Gupta has upheld the Karnataka High Court verdict and dismisses the appeal against hijab ban while the other Judge Sudhanshu Dhulia found it had ruled in error. Justice Dhulia says he has allowed the appeals and said that it was a matter of choice of Muslim women,”nothing less than nothing more”. Further he also said thatAsking a pre university schoolgirl to take off her hijab at her school gate, is an invasion on her #privacy and dignity says Justice Dhulia. The High Court of Karnataka took a wrong path. It is ultimately a matter of choice and Article 14 and 19. Both the SC judges gave different verdict on Karnataka Hijab case.The opinion of both the judges of the Supreme Court is different on hijab, so now this matter will go to higher bench. Let’s wait for the final decision but there are many questions which are coming in my mind. In a Secular democratic country where a Hindu Pandit can attend a class by wearing tilak, a sikh can attend a class by wearing turban but why a Muslim girl can’t attend a class by wearing a hijab? Why there is a discrimination on the basis of religion? Why there is a restrictions only for Muslims girls?
Pardah is an essential part of Islam as well as Constitution of India allows us to do our religious practices under article 25 of the Indian Constitution. Wearing hijab or not wear the hijab is a personal choice and no has right to stop anyone to do her personal choice. If Muslim girls wants to wear the hijab by following the uniform colour then why the govt is restricting them or World largest Democracy can’t bear a piece of cloth on women head?