Women hold march to support right to education, dignity amid hijab row

A women-led rally was held in Bengaluru on Sunday, March 6, to draw attention to women’s fundamental rights including the right to education, dignity and choice. The march was held just before International Women’s Day and in the backdrop of the hijab row in Karnataka. The march began from the Café Coffee Day Square on Vittal Mallya Road and culminated at Town Hall with the protesters, who had black bands on their arms in protest. Letters of solidarity with students of Karnataka were read out during the rally.
The event ended with a candlelight vigil at Town Hall. Poems authored by K Sharifa and Rafia Zainab were performed while songs of resistance were sung during the march.
The women in the march urged people to ask themselves how they would feel if they were refused entry into school, if their friends refused to talk to them, if they were made to sit on the floor, or if they had to drop out of school. One of the key demands made in the rally was that women cannot be forced to choose between their fundamental right to education and their right to choice of clothing.
The hijab row started in December when a few girls were denied entry into the college with hijab. Till then, students used to wear the headscarf to the campus, but entered the classroom after removing it, college principal Rudre Gowda had said. “The institution did not have any rule on hijab-wearing since no one used to wear it to the classroom in the last 35 years. The students who came with the demand had the backing of outside forces,” Gowda had alleged.
As the issue of hijab versus saffron scarves spread to several educational institutions in many parts of Karnataka, the state government announced a holiday from February 9 to 15 in all the pre-university colleges and from February 9 to February 16 in degree and diploma colleges. The girls approached the Karnataka High Court seeking relief and quashing a government order on February 5 restraining students from wearing any cloth, apart from the uniform, that could disturb peace, harmony and public order.
The full bench of the High Court comprising CJ Awasthi, Justice JM Khazi and Justice Krishna S Dixit, which heard the case, had said in its interim order asked the state government to reopen the educational institutions and restrained students from wearing hijab and saffron scarves in the class-room till the final order is delivered. The court has reserved its order and is likely to pronounce it soon.