By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Mangalore: Time and again, the Hijab row continues to haunt Muslim girls in educational institutions across Karnataka, but especially so in Mangalore. This time, a college management on the outskirts of the city at Valachil in Dakshina Kannada district has asked girls not to attend the classes wearing Hijab.
The incidence came to light on Wednesday.
TCN file photo
As per a report in ToI, the principal of the pharmacy college called the girls and told them that wearing of scarf is against the dress code for girl students. The girls called their parents, who had a heated exchanged with the school management. Parents insisted the point was not explicitly mentioned in the prospectus and said the management can’t now add or impose a new dress code all of a sudden.
The adamant college management then allowed Muslim girls to wear Hijab for this academic year as its own prospectus did not specifically mentioned about non wearing of Hijab or observing of only said dress code as compulsory for attending the college.
The college management, however, has indicated that it will make the necessary corrections in its prospectus so that every girl irrespective of her religion will have to strictly observe the dress code.
This is not a one off incidence but similar incidences were reported earlier from Mangalore where college managements forced Muslim girls not to wear head scarf or Hijab while in college campus.
In August 2009, Sri Venkatraman Swamy (SVS) College, run by the SVS Vidyavardhaka Sangha in the Dakshina Kannada district had directed a 19-year-old first year B Com student not to enter the classroom with a headscarf. Ironically, Mangalore University to which the college is affiliated had not issued any such circular of banning a Hijab in the colleges but the college had imposed the rule on its own. Incidentally, the student had attended the interview with a burqa on but was not informed about any such rule then. In August 2011, a second year PU Commerce student at the Jain Pre-University College in Mangalore was denied permission to wear the head-scarf in the class by college authorities, prompting her to approach the district administration for justice. Similarly, in July 2012 as many as 107 Muslim students had protested the management of Sri Ramakunjeshwara First Grade College, Ramakunje near Uppinangadi for banning the Hijab in that college.