Refusing to let girls go to school in hijabs is `horrifying`: Malala hits out at Indian leaders

`Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women,` Malala Yousafzai, who in 2014 became the youngest-ever Nobel Prize winner for her work promoting girls` education, said.

New Delhi: Amid ongoing controversy over some Karnataka schools refusing entry to students wearing the hijab, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai on Tuesday (February 8, 2022) hit out at Indian leaders and asked them to stop the marginalisation of Muslim women.

The girls' education activist said that refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is 'horrifying'. 

"Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying. Objectification of women persists — for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women," Yousafzai, who in 2014 became the youngest-ever Nobel Prize winner for her work promoting girls' education in Pakistan, said.

Meanwhile, Karnataka has ordered schools and colleges to shut for three days, its chief minister said on Tuesday, after protests erupted against schools refusing entry to students wearing the hijab.

"I appeal to all the students, teachers and management of schools and colleges as well as people of Karnataka to maintain peace and harmony," CM Basavaraj Bommai tweeted.

It is noteworthy that several schools in Karnataka's Udupi had denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the hijab citing an education ministry order, prompting protests from parents and students. Subsequently, tensions frayed further in recent days in the coastal city and elsewhere in Karnataka as some students with saffron shawls thronged into classrooms to show their support of their schools' hijab ban.

The government of Karnataka, which is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had said in an order on February 5 that all schools should follow dress codes set by management.

BC Nagesh, the education minister of Karnataka, had said that school dress codes had been set after reviewing court decisions from across the country to ban the hijab at educational institutions.

A case filed by one of the students, who said in her petition that wearing the hijab was a fundamental right to religion guaranteed by the constitution, was heard in the Karnataka High Court in Bengaluru on Tuesday. While no final order was passed, the judge appealed for peace and calm and will continue hearing the petition on Wednesday.

Opposition parties, meanwhile, have accused the BJP government of discriminating against religious minorities and running the risk of stoking violence. 

(With agency inputs)