Closing The Gates To Education: Violations Of Rights Of Muslim Women Students: PUCL’s Report On Hijab Ban

On 31st December, 2021, Government Girls PU College, Udupi imposed a sudden restriction on the hijab inside classrooms. The college enforced this restriction in the absence of any rule, resolution or guideline. The college uniform was a blue coloured chudidhar with dupatta, and they prohibited students from using the dupatta as a headscarf. Six students protested the move by sitting outside the classroom for 3 days and demanded that they be allowed to wear the hijab and attend classes. 15th March, 2022 The High Court of Karnataka passed a final order upholding the Government Order dated 05.02.2022 and thereby, allowed for restriction of the hijab in educational institutions. A Special Leave Petition was filed in the Supreme Court of India challenging the Karnataka HC order dated 15.03.2022. The Supreme Court delivered a split verdict on the hijab ban. To adjudicate on the hijab restriction, the matter is referred to the Chief Justice of India for the constitution of a larger bench. The matter is still pending before the Supreme Court and the ban is still continuing which means a female student is still not allowed to attend classes while wearing a Hijab. On January 9, a report was published by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) -Karnataka, which had undertaken a study titled as “Closing the Gates to Education: Violations of Rights of Muslim women students.” to investigate the impact of the imposed ban on the students and examine the role of authorities, administrative officials and police officials. “Through conversations with students as well as authorities, and an analysis of events that transpired, it becomes visibly clear that Muslim women students were not only actively prevented from accessing their right to education, but also bore the brunt of a climate of hate, hostility and misinformation. Students have faced humiliation and harassment in their own classrooms at the hands of their faculty, college administration and classmates. The report documents how vigilante groups of Hindutva organisations carried out a vilification campaign against hijab wearing students and how the inaction of the government and police gave implicit encouragement to these fundamentalist forces.” reads the report The objective of conducting this study/report was three-folded: 1. Firstly, to assess the impact of the restriction on wearing hijab on Muslim women students across Karnataka on their fundamental rights 2. Secondly, to document the experiences and struggles of the Muslim women students during the Karnataka High Court hearings as well as after the judgement was pronounced by the Karnataka High Court 3. Lastly, to investigate the roles of administrative authorities at the district level and at the college level and contextualise this education crisis amidst a larger global discourse around the hijab. The report also documents the way vigilante groups run by Hindutva organisations ran widespread hate campaigns, promoted by the Media. The team for undertaking the study consisted of Aishwarya Ravikumar, Kishor Govind, Poorna Ravishankar, Ramdas Rao and Shashank S.R. The report discussed the ‘Timeline of Events’, the sequence of major developments which transpired from December 31, 2021 to the split verdict delivered by the Supreme Court. With regard to legal and constitutional violations, the report provides an analysis of the violations of the female students rights: 1. Right to Education without discrimination: The report elaborates the ways in which Muslim women students were denied their right to education, by being forced to stay out of the classrooms. Students have also recounted their experiences of loss, broken dreams and career aspirations, discrimination, segregation from other non-hijab wearing students and their feeling of fear and insecurity within the campuses of their colleges. 2. Right to Dignity: Students recounted how the experience of being forced to choose between wearing the hijab and continuing their education was an assault on their dignity. Many students shared that being forced to remove the hijab made them feel naked in public. Students felt extremely vulnerable to further targeted attacks of hate and harassment. 3. Right to Privacy: Here, the report elaborates how the right to a personal choice was seized from Muslim women students. Students also shared how they were placed under the hostile gaze of the media which displayed many of their names and images on television and the internet.4. Right to Freedom of Expression: This section shares the testimonies of students who shared that wearing the hijab was a way for them to exercise their freedom of expression. It is the idea of expression as including the freedom of dress and attire as encompassing a core dimension of individuality. 5. Right to Non-Discrimination: Muslim women students were not only excluded due to the imposed...

Closing The Gates To Education: Violations Of Rights Of Muslim Women Students: PUCL’s Report On Hijab Ban

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