- Imran Qureshi
- BBC Bangalore
Hijab: Protests in Indian cities against ban on classrooms
Maskan Khan has become a symbol of resistance among young Indian Muslim women who are fighting against the headscarf ban.
The 19-year-old appeared in a video clip, which spread like wildfire on social media, as she entered her school as a crowd of men approached her, each wearing a red-orange scarf over his shoulders; A color associated with Hinduism and Hindu national groups, they chant “Glory to God Ram”.
But Maskan, who appeared in the video wearing a black abaya and a black veil in addition to a face mask, stood in the face of the young men who continued to harass her, and began shouting, “God is great,” before the school administration rushed to take her inside.
From her home in Mandya, Karnataka, where the video was filmed, Maskan told the BBC: “All I want is to defend my rights and my education.”
“I don’t have a problem with what they wear,” she added, noting that her classmates can wear orange-red scarves and turbans when they come to class, just as she has the right to wear the hijab.
Maskan is one of the millions of Indian Muslims who wear the hijab or niqab on a daily basis, but this choice has, over the past few weeks, become controversial.
It began last month, when students at a high school in Udupi County decided to protest the administration’s decision to ban them from wearing the headscarf.
Since then, the crisis has worsened as other schools began imposing similar measures. Then the issue took on a sectarian dimension with the emergence of groups supporting the Hindu nationalists in demonstrations in support of the decisions to ban headscarves.
With the protests turning violent in some places, the Karnataka state government closed secondary schools and colleges, reaching the state’s Supreme Court. A three-judge constitutional court is scheduled to hear the case on Thursday.
picture released, Getty Images
Meanwhile, universities were polarized, with Hindu students entering universities wearing orange-red scarves.
Maskan Khan, the daughter of a local merchant, claims that the situation she was exposed to was planned by “stranger” men who were not students in her school or classmates.
“I came to school for my classes, and I noticed that there were many young men who were wearing red-orange scarves,” she says.
“They stopped me, saying that I could not enter the school campus,” she said.
She explains that when she approached the school door, she saw the crowd preventing 3 or 4 veiled girls from entering.
He recalled that the young men “were waving their red scarves and shouting ‘Glory to God Ram’, and asked me to take off my hijab, so that I could enter the school, and they threatened me.”
But she asserts that she insisted on confrontation.
picture released, Umesh Marpally
Hindu students began to enter the sanctuary wearing red-orange scarves.
She parked her scooter and was heading to her classroom, when about “30 or 40 young men” started walking towards her, shouting “Glory to God Ram.”
She says: “Again they asked me to take off my hijab if I wanted to enter the school. Yes, I yelled at them saying God is great. I scream for God’s help when I feel afraid, and this gives me strength.”
At this point the school staff rushed to take her inside.
Maskan says that she feels happy, because of the appreciation she felt, on social media platforms, adding, “This amount of love gave me strength, I thank them all.”
It also reiterates that it “does not differentiate between Muslims and Hindus” in society.
She concludes, “These guys tried to stop me from learning just because I wear the hijab, so I’m just defending my rights.”