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Indian court upholds hijab ban that prompted weeks of religious clashes
The state’s high court docket on Tuesday dominated that the hijab was not an “important non secular observe in Islamic religion” and dismissed a set of petitions filed by Muslim college students denied entry to school rooms in a number of colleges and faculties throughout the state.
The court docket additionally dominated that requirement for college students to adjust to faculty uniforms is a “cheap restriction, constitutionally permissible and which the scholars can not object to.”
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai appealed for calm after the ruling, which authorities feared might reignite non secular protests.
“I request everyone to observe the excessive court docket order and keep peace and order,” Bommai informed reporters Tuesday. “And permit the youngsters to do their schooling as standard.”
The controversy erupted after college students staged a small protest in January demanding they be allowed contained in the classroom whereas carrying the Islamic clothes.
The dispute was seen as an emblem of deepening non secular tensions within the state, the place authorities ordered the closure of all excessive colleges and faculties for a number of days to discourage protests in early February. Rallies within the state’s capital, Bengaluru, had been additionally banned exterior academic establishments for 2 weeks.
Scores of girls from different Indian cities, together with capital Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata, additionally took to the streets in help of the Muslim ladies.
State authorities had supported the hijab ban, citing the state’s mandate on non secular apparel.
However specialists and activists say the hijab row runs deeper than a gown code, claiming it is indicative of a wider crackdown on India’s minority Muslim inhabitants since Modi’s BJP got here to energy nearly eight years in the past.
Karnataka — the place simply 13% of the inhabitants is Muslim — is ruled by the BJP, and the state has already handed laws critics say favors Hindus.
Lawyer Mohammed Tahir, who represented one group of petitioners in court docket, informed CNN final month that Karnataka was a “hotbed” of Hindutva ideology, supported by many right-wing teams, which seeks to make India the land of the Hindus.
“We welcome the decision. Nevertheless, we’re but to establish the reasoning,” one of many ladies’ legal professionals, Shatabish Shivanna, informed CNN of Tuesday’s judgment. “We’ll speak to the petitioners after which we’ll look out to what authorized recourse we wish to take.”