Hijab row reaches Delhi, Class VI student barred from class in school at Mustafabad

The incident came to light after a video of the girl narrating the alleged incident was posted on Twitter by a user, which is now being shared widely.

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing hijab controversy, a Class VI student was allegedly barred from class in a government school in northeast Delhi’s Mustafabad for wearing a hijab. 

The matter came to light after a video of the girl narrating the alleged incident was posted on Twitter by Kashif Afroz, which is now being shared widely. The tweet identified the girl as a student of a Delhi government school in Tukhmirpur, Delhi. “The girl was asked to not act like a mother. Along with her, the hijab of two other girls was also removed,” Afroz tweeted.

In the video, the girl said that she was asked to remove the hijab. “My teacher told me to remove my headscarf. She said, ‘Mummy mat bano. Kal se scarf pehenke mat aana nahi toh class se bahar nikaal doing (Don’t be like your mother. Don’t wear a scarf from tomorrow, or you will be removed from class).’ Two more girls wearing scarves were also asked to remove them,” the girl said. 

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, Mohammad Ayyub Gauri, 38, father of the girl, said it was his daughter’s first day at the school and she studied at a private school earlier.

“My daughter went to the school on Monday, her first day in the school. The teacher in her class humiliated her in front of the entire class and rebuked her. ‘What are you wearing? Don’t act like a mother and wear this to the classroom again,’ the teacher told her. She was harassed in front of 40-50 children and was on the verge of breaking down. She removed her hijab after that,” Gauri said.

Gauri also said that he went to the school to complain against the teacher to the authorities and asked for a written order over any rule against wearing of hijab in class. “But they did not have anything in writing. It might be after the Karnataka incident issue is being made over wearing the hijab,” he said. 

Additionally, a Directorate of Education official said that an “unnecessary controversy” was being created over the matter. The official went on to add that the practice of girls removing their scarves before entering the class has been going on for a long time and nothing has changed since then. “Maybe an issue is being made out of it in light of the recent Karnataka case,” said the official. 

The girl’s family has submitted a written complaint about the incident with Mustafabad MLA Haji Yunus as well as the district education department. 

The row over hijab has escalated in the past few weeks after students of a government college in Udupi protested against the dress code implemented by the authorities which denied entry into classrooms to the students wearing headscarves. The Karnataka HC is hearing on a day-to-day basis a petition seeking permission to wear hijab in classrooms.