Karnataka govt to withdraw hijab ban, says CM Siddaramaiah
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday, December 22, announced that the state government will withdraw the hijab ban decision.
“We will withdraw the hijab ban. Women can wear hijab and go. I have directed officers to withdraw the ban order. Choice of dress & food is personal. Why should I obstruct? Wear what you want. Eat what you want. I wear a dhoti, you wear a pants and shirt. What’s wrong with that? One mustn’t do politics for votes,” he said, while addressing a gathering in Mysore.
Announcing on X, Siddaramaiah slammed PM Narendra Modi’s ‘sab ka saath-sab ka vikas’ slogan as ‘bogus’
“The BJP is doing the work of dividing people and dividing society based on clothes, dress, caste. I have asked officials to withdraw the hijab ban,” he said.
The ban on hijab in educational institutions was first imposed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government in the state in 2022.
The decision was legally challenged in the Karnataka High Court which upheld the ban stating that “wearing a hijab is not an essential religious practice of Islam” and that the uniform dress code should be followed in educational institutions where it is prescribed.
Background of the hijab row
The hijab controversy erupted and has been raging since December 2021, after students of a pre-university college in Karnataka’s Udupi were prohibited from wearing headscarves (hijab), as part of their religious obligation, on the college premises. The issue blew up after Hindu students turned up to their colleges wearing saffron scarves in a protest against hijabi Muslims being allowed to wear headscarves.
The state was forced to form a committee to decide on the issue and prohibited the students from wearing any religious garment, including the hijab until a decision is reached.
However, several protests by saffron-clad students and Muslims around the state forced the state to shut down schools and colleges for a few days.
Several petitions were filed in support of the hijab against the Karnataka government’s ban decision in the high court. However, on March 16, 2022, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit, and Justice J M Khazi concluded that hijab was not an essential religious practice in Islam upholding the Karnataka government’s ban.
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