India Hijab protests spread in as students refused to be told what not to wear
A college student has become a symbol of resistance in India's Karnataka state, where religious tensions rise over the right to wear religious clothing to school.
Muskan Khan was attempting to hand in a college assignment in Mandya when she was accosted by a group of Hindu men wearing saffron scarves, the colour of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to a video posted to social media.
"They were not allowing me to go inside, just because I was carrying the burqa," she told local outlet channel NDTV. Khan had covered her head with a hijab, an Islamic headscarf, and was wearing a religious dress.
The men mock her as she makes her way across the school grounds, demanding she take off her face covering, but instead of complying, Khan shouts back "Allahu Akbar" as she punches her fist in the air.
The confrontation illustrates the religious divide that's been widening in Karnataka since a group of girls began protesting outside their government-run school in January after they were denied entry into the classroom for wearing a hijab.
The girls petitioned the state's top court to lift the ban, prompting rival protests from right-wing Hindu students. On Wednesday, the court referred the petition to a larger panel of judges, but no date has been set for hearings.
Activists say the hijab row is yet another example of a broader trend in India, one that has seen an on India's minority Muslim population since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP came to power nearly eight years ago.
They say that by denying Muslim women the choice to wear the hijab, the government denies them their religious freedoms, enshrined in the Indian constitution.
"This is a massive attempt by the BJP to homogenise Indian culture, to make it a Hindu-only state," said 23-year-old Muslim activist Afreen Fatima, who has been protesting in support of the students in her hometown Allahabad in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state.
"Muslim women are isolated in India. And the situation is getting worse every day."
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