Headscarf and a social fabric in tatters

The controversy over disallowing girls in hijabs in classrooms, citing a uniform dress code, is no longer confined to Karnataka’s coastal districts. K.V. Aditya Bharadwaj explores the genesis of the row in Udupi and the context of its rapid spread across the State

As the sun set on the coastal town of Udupi in Karnataka on Tuesday, 17-year-old Aliya Assadi sat on the steps of Jamia Masjid, her mind racing in different directions. She wants to be a wildlife photographer. She’s worried about her board exams. But her thoughts keep circling back to the violence and anger over her choice of attire: the hijab.

Assadi is one of six students of the Government Pre-University College for Girls, Udupi, who has been barred from the classroom since December 27, 2021, for wearing a hijab. “I have been wearing a hijab since I was six years old. It is religious and it gives me a sense of security and confidence. I am uncomfortable removing it. What I don’t understand is why I am being forced to choose between the hijab and education,” she says.

Her fight for the right to wear the religious headscarf, in addition to the prescribed uniform, to school, which she has taken to the Karnataka High Court, has exploded into what is called the “hijab controversy” in Karnataka. This has spread like wildfire, further exposing the communal divide and the growing lack of trust between the Hindu and Muslim communities.

Fuelled by social media, television channels, and Hindu and Muslim student orgranisations, there is a deadlock across the State with the defining image being of teachers closing college gates on girls clad in hijabs. This comes at a time when five States are holding Assembly elections with all eyes on communally rife Uttar Pradesh.

While the local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders insist that Assadi and her peers have been “brainwashed” by radical student organisations, the students themselves say otherwise.

According to K. Raghupati Bhat, BJP MLA from Udupi and Chairman of the College Development Committee (CDC), in December 2021, eight girls tried to enter classes wearing hijabs. “There are over 80 Muslim girl students in the college who attend classes without any issue as we have a prescribed uniform. Students wear their hijabs till they reach the college premises, but remove them in classrooms. Eventually, two of the girls removed their hijabs, but the rest refused to budge,” he says.

Bhat argues that the hijab-wearing girls were not allowed to enter classrooms as their attire violated the uniform norm in the college. “These students have been trained by the Campus Front of India [CFI, a student organisation dominated by Muslims and growing from strength to strength across campuses in coastal Karnataka],” he alleges.