Girls own the right to wear what: Priyanka Gandhi on hijab-row

New Delhi: Extending solidarity to the Muslim girls who were banned from wearing classrooms, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on Twitter that the choice of clothes was always the girls' own and that right is protected by the Indian Constitution, NDTV reported.

Priyanka said that whether it is a bikini, ghoonghat, a pair of jeans or a hijab, the right to wear what ultimately rests in the particular woman. Stop harassing women, she tweeted with the hashtag '#ladkihoonladsaktihoon'. The slogan is Congress' banner for the Uttar Pradesh elections, which is to commence on Thursday.

With Priyanka Gandhi in charge, Congress had focussed women's rights and empowerment as the lead of their polls campaigns in UP polls. It fielded women as 40 per cent of its candidates and vowed to provide free smartphones and two-wheelers for girls if UP elected them to power.

The 'hijab' issue broke out in Karnataka after six girl students of a Udupi college were forbidden to wear hijab inside classrooms, and their protests triggered the saffron-clad counter-demonstrations. 'Anti-hijab' movements erupted suddenly in towns of Karnataka's Udupi and spread into Chikkamagalur and Mandya districts in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, a video surfaced featuring a hijab-clad girl being bullied by a mob of men wearing saffron scarves, chanting 'Jai Sriram'. However, the girl was seen raising 'Alla hu Akbar' before she was escorted from there.

The BJP government in the state issued an order banning clothes that disturb the peace, communal harmony, law and order, etc., in the state. The state High Court has been hearing the matter since Tuesday.