An Indian court of Karnataka state governed by BJP has upheld a ban on Hijab in Schools by dismissing many pleas and stating that Hijab is not mandatory in Islam.
“We are of the considered opinion that wearing of hijab by Muslim women does not form a part of essential religious practice,” Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi of the Karnataka High Court said in a judgement on Tuesday.
The court further said the government have the power to prescribe uniform guidelines and dismissed pleas challenging the ban.
Now, the Karnataka High Court order has been challenged in the Supreme Court of India by Niba Naaz, a student who was not among the five who had originally petitioned against the hijab ban.
Karnataka’s hijab dispute started in January of this year when a government-run school in the Udupi district closed its doors for Muslim women who showed up wearing a Hijab (Arabic word for a head scarf.)
The move triggered protests by Muslims and counter-protests by Hindu students.
Furthermore, a video posted on Twitter showing a hijab-wearing Muslim student being heckled by a Hindu far-right mob at a college in Karnataka state caused outrage and protests over ban on Islamic headscarves in the southern state.
More schools and colleges in the state followed with similar bans and the state’s top court disallowed students from wearing the hijab until it delivered a verdict.
Students who had challenged the ban in court had said wearing the hijab was a fundamental right guaranteed under India’s constitution and mandatory in Islam.
Reportedly, during the hijab row, a public sector bank in India’s northern state of Bihar at Begusarai ‘allegedly’ refused to pay cash to a woman since she was wearing a hijab.
The court ruling could set a precedent for the rest of the country, home to more than 200 million Muslims who make up about 14 percent of India’s 1.35 billion population.
Currently, there is no central law or rule on school uniforms across the country, but the Karnataka ruling could prompt more states to issue such guidelines.