By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
A college in Kasargod district in Kerala was closed on Friday following clashes between two groups of students in the name of students observing purdah.
Classes at C K Nair Arts and Management College at Kanhangad were temporarily suspended after differences over permission to wear purdah. The college, which follows a uniform system, had allowed students to wear casual clothes on Wednesday. The issues started when four third-year students of BA English came to class wearing purdah on Wednesday.
On August 2, a third-year girl came to college wearing purdah. Talking to the local media, she alleged that the teacher asked the girl to remove the veil citing it was against the college dress code.
Protesting against the teacher’s action, four students came to class wearing purdah last Wednesday. When they were told to remove it, they refused and they were sent to principal’s room.
“We wore it in a protest against principal’s move to ban purdah. And we didn’t remove it. This rule was not there during the first two years of our campus days,” one of the four students told local media.
The issue took a wrong turn when Muslim Students Federation (MSF) and National Students League (NSL) activists organised a march in the college in a protest against principal’s stand.
The march created a ruckus in the college and following this, Students Federation of India (SFI), which controls the college union, also staged a protest march against the stance of the MSF and the NSL.
The two groups clashed and both MSF and SFI leaders gave complaints with Kanhangad police station accusing each other for beating their members.
Following the clashes, classes were suspended by the college principal. Principal A C Kunhikannan Nair said clothes such as face-covering purdah, collarless T-shirts, leggings and red, green and saffron lungis were not allowed on the campus. He said the college will be reopened soon after the reconciliatory meeting to be held on Saturday.