Hijab row: Muslim lecturer in Karnataka resigns in protest

Bengaluru: In Karnataka, where the hijab issue is searing the education system, an English professor has resigned from service on Friday as a protest against her being asked to stop wearing hijab inside the college, NDTV reported.

The teacher of Jain PU College in Tumakuru, Chandni, told the media that she has been a teacher in the institution for three years and was never asked to stop wearing the headwear before.

Chandini said that she has been wearing it and taking classes till now, and on Thursday, the college principal told her that she could not wear the hijab or any religious symbols while teaching. The new restriction harms her self respect, and therefore she decided to quit, she said.

But, the college principal KT Manjunath said that neither he nor the college management had asked Chandini to remove her hijab.

Educational institutions in Karnataka have been under a tense atmosphere after the sudden rise of the hijab issue in recent weeks. There have been protests against the blanket ban on the hijab, and there were also 'anti-hijab' campaigns fuelled by right-wing Hindutva outfits.

A Government women's college in Udupi had banned students from wearing hijab inside classes, and six Muslim girls started protesting against it. They were prohibited from entering classes wearing the hijab. The issues began after students supporting right-wing groups sported saffron-clad demonstrations in many colleges in the district, and faceoffs happened between them and hijab-worn girls.

Later, the Karnataka government ordered a ban on clothes- related to religions or those harms the peace and harmony of the society- inside educational institutions. When the Muslim girls approached the state High Court, it pronounced an interim ban on the clothes till it reached a final judgement. Supreme Court refused to intervene in the issue at the moment.