Hijab row in UP: Burqa-clad girls denied entry to college in Moradabad; professors say `dress code` implemented

Hijab row in UP: A scuffle broke out between the students, the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha workers, and the college professors who remained adamant about sticking to the prescribed rules.

Moradabad: Some students of the Hindu college in Uttar Pradesh`s Moradabad were denied entry to the college for wearing a burqa despite the prescribed uniform code for the students here. The girls have alleged that their college was not letting them enter the college campus wearing burqa and are compelling them to remove it at the entrance gate. On the said matter, a scuffle broke out between the students, the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha workers, and the college professors who remained adamant about sticking to the prescribed rules. 

A video of the scene from the Hindu college has been making rounds on the Internet. Meanwhile, the college professor, Dr AP Singh said that they have implemented a dress code for the students here and anybody who refuses to follow it will be barred from entering the college campus.

To this, the members of Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha submitted a memorandum to include the burqa in the dress code for college and allow the girls to attend their classes wearing it. 

Earlier in January 2022, a similar situation rose in Karnataka when the massive Hijab protests broke out, where some students of Government Girls PU college in the Udupi district of the state alleged that they had been barred from attending classes. During the protests, some students claimed they were denied entry into the college for wearing hijab.

Following this incident, students of different colleges arrived at Shanteshwar Education Trust in Vijayapura wearing saffron stoles. The situation was the same in several colleges in the Udupi district.

The pre-University education board had released a circular stating that students can wear only the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious practices will be allowed in colleges. 

The matter was then taken up to the Karnataka High Court which dismissed various petitions challenging a ban on Hijab in education institutions and said that wearing a Hijab is not an essential religious practice of Islam.

However, when taken to the Supreme Court, the apex body on October 13, 2022 pronounced a split verdict in the Karnataka Hijab ban case.

The arguments in the matter went on for 10 days in which 21 lawyers from the petitioners` side and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, Karnataka Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi argued for the respondents.