Communalism
Jyoti Punwani writes: Then, as now, powerful forces mobilised groups of men against women’s choice. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/theres-an-echo-of-the-shah-bano-case-in-the-hijab-controversy-7774077/
Today the country's Leftists, Liberals and feminists find themselves standing shoulder to shoulder with organisations that support the Taliban, carry out Islamic punishments for 'blasphemy' and harass Muslim girls who wear jeans in Colleges. These organisations are invited on media channels as the young women's spokespersons... The tragedy is those who have struggled for decades to reduce religiousity in public places have been reduced to fighting for more of it...
Comment: I do object to making an equivalence between religiosity in public space and political assertiveness of the parties concerned. The girl who was sloganeering say Allah u akbar clearly said in her interview to NDTV, that it was not the school which propelled her to shout that slogan, but the guys from outside who were forcing her. We have to recognise that the Mullas also like this kind of response because it gives them more power, that same with the dharam sansad guys. Even people who want to show their "religiosity" want to exhibit it and are allowed to do so, then it will take the wind out of the sails of the political assertiveness. This will happen more when we also ask local people to reflect on the religious symbolism.. For example the whole fiasco at the Ganga, has been taken badly by a majority of Hindus.. The only reason why they dont say it aloud is because their criticism is tom-tomed by people like us.. We have to demand that those who project religious symbols, should apply the religious principles in their social and political behaviour.. We have to hold their politics to their reigious values.
The Problem is that most of us liberals , Socialists and People on the Left are shy of engaging in anything considered "spiritual" or "religious", That is also because of our understanding that all things "rational" only comes from the logic, positive sense based knowledge, which has total consistency. We aren't humble enough to admit that we are falable, and perhaps dont understand as much as we think we do..
Media enter a classroom and film minor girl students
Incidents of media abuse following the interim order of the Karnataka High COurt as reported by Bahutva Karnataka Network.
The Kannada news channel Public TV aired coverage on 14th and 15th February entered a classroom in a government Urdu school in Gulbarga and without the consent of authorities or parents started filing girl children.
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rbXSQtCy4w : In this report, Public TV has claimed that students were asked to remove the hijabs after your channel reported on this in Gulbarga. Visuals of girls with and without the hijabs were repeatedly flashed.
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TgndGR8xCE : In this report, the reporter is inside a classroom, disrupting classes, speaking to teachers even as examination papers are being distributed, and speaking to the anchor in the classroom space. The reporter asks the teacher how they allowed students to sit in the classroom with the hijab on.
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j1Q8IqdSBQ : In this video, the anchor claims that students who were not wearing hijab have now decided to wear the hijab. There is no evidence or substantiation presented. There are also claims being made that the students don’t seem to care about the interim order and have come wearing the hijab.
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N6ZGp9UaBc In this report, the claim is made that only after Public TV’s coverage, teachers have got the girls to remove their hijab. The reporter claims that this should have been done by teachers but “we have had to do the work of warning them…Schools have left students to sit in classes with the hijab. Both students and schools don’t seem to be inclined to following the high court order."
5. Mudigere -Police enter school premises and send girls wearing hijab out of the school
The Cognate on 15th February reported that in a school in Mudigere, around 20 hijab-clad students were sent out of class after the police department entered.
The minister’s comments are significant because the previous BJP government in Karnataka banned students from wearing hijabs to government schools in early 2022. The issue, which began after the Government PU College in Udupi barred hijab-wearing girls from entering the classroom, snowballed into a statewide controversy.
The ban was upheld by the Karnataka high court in March 2022, which held that hijab was not an essential part of religious practice. The order was challenged in the Supreme Court, which delivered a split verdict in October 22.
Hijab-Wearing Candidates Can Appear for Recruitment Exams, Karnataka Minister Says (thewire.in)
23/10/2023
There were teenage girls in Karnataka who were stopped from getting an education in a government institution for wearing an extra piece of cloth – the hijab. The restriction was challenged. The matter came before the highest court of the land – the sentinel on the qui vive, as it calls itself. Eleven days of passionate arguments and a split verdict came. The matter awaits its listing after almost a year from the judgment. https://thewire.in/law/two-hijab-cases-one-lesson
another Indian state, this time a private minority institution, again the issue of uniform and hijab. The court order, interestingly, but unsurprisingly, is vastly different.
The order records the prosecution story of how a private minority institution in Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, has a uniform of shalwar-qameez and hijab for girls students, and non-Muslim students are not being allowed to put tilak and tie kalawa. Urdu is being taught as a compulsory subject.
The parents of non-Muslim students denied claims of religious symbols being forced on their children.
The state government promptly suspended the license of the private school.
In Karnataka, the latter part of 2021 and 2022 witnessed strong protests by young Muslim women and the Muslim community at large against the restriction on hijab. With the state government and judiciary supporting the restriction, the state of Karnataka witnessed a steep dropout rate of Muslim women from government institutions and pre-university colleges. Those who could afford, opted for private institutions to continue their studies, others vanished from the face of educational statistics.
13/09/2023
Young Muslim women in Karnataka recount how a court order legitimised Hindutva prejudice and locked them out of an education.
https://scroll.in/article/1041529/one-year-of-karnatakas-war-on-muslim-womens-right-to-learn
Following the high court verdict, the college authorities told Sayed that she would be allowed into class only if she removed her hijab. “I tried to convince them several times,” she said. “But they just would not listen.” A few weeks later, Sayed was back at home, doing household chores and taking care of her son. It had already been a struggle to convince her in-laws to allow her to go out to pursue an education; she did not feel up to the challenge of persuading them to let her study without a hijab.
While Muslims across India have long had low access to education, those in Karnataka have struggled particularly hard for it. A government survey released in 2013 found that of all states, Karnataka had the highest dropout rate of Muslim school students between classes 1 and 8, at 6.3%. The survey also found that among all the Muslim students in India in the upper primary stage who dropped out of school that year, 73.9% were from Karnataka.
11/01/2023