Hijab row: 23 girl students suspended in K'taka for staging protest seeking permission to wear hijab in class

The hijab row took yet another turn for the worse when 23 girl students were suspended by the Uppinangady Government First Grade College management for staging a protest demanding permission to wear hijab inside classrooms. The protest took place last week. Puttur BJP MLA and the College Development Committee (CDC) Chairman, Sanjeeva Matandoor, told PTI on June 7, "The students staged a demonstration. So they were suspended on Monday." According to the PTI report, last week, the girls came to the college in the Puttur Taluk of Dakshina Kannada district wearing hijabs and protested for permission to wear the headscarf. 

The CDC met yesterday and decided to suspend them. The panel had earlier suspended seven girl students for coming to the college wearing hijabs. The girls have been insisting on wearing their hijab despite the Karnataka High Court ruling in March this year on the issue that the headscarf is not an essential religious practice in Islam and everyone should abide by the uniform dress rule in the educational institutions where there is a dress code. The court also upheld the Karnataka government's order that outlawed any piece of clothing inside the education institutions that can disturb the peace and public order.

The ruling came after a few girl students from a government pre-university college in the coastal district of Udupi approached the High Court after they were banned from attending classes with their hijab on as some Hindu students started coming to college wearing saffron stoles. The issue had sparked agitations by students, making headlines in parts of Karnataka earlier this year. To control the situation, the government had shut schools and colleges in Karnataka for a week in February.