Parents decide to discontinue daughter's study in Christian school that barred student from wearing hijab as per her faith

While St Rita’s School in the Palluruthy, Kochi, in Kerala, that demanded the student to remove the headscarf, which every Muslim girl and woman wears as a religious obligation, only to be allowed to study, escalating the issue to political and communal proportions, the parents of the girl have decided not to continue her education there as she has undergone mental trauma.

The controversy, which began after the student started wearing a hijab in October along with the school uniform, as the uniform policy does not mention that girls shall not cover their heads, and when the girl started wearing a headscarf the school authorities did not allow her to attend class, has now grown into a broader debate over religious freedom, secularism, and the right to education in Kerala.

The incident drew sharp reactions from various sections of society, prompting the intervention of Education Minister V Sivankutty, who reiterated the government’s position that the student’s constitutional right to wear the hijab must be respected.

The school, which cited its dress code to justify denying the girl permission to wear the hijab, soon found itself at the centre of protests led by members of the local Muslim community. The management later approached the Kerala High Court and sought police protection following demonstrations outside the campus.

As the situation intensified, the Education Department initiated a probe into the matter and found procedural lapses on the part of the school management, leading to a directive from the minister instructing the institution to permit the girl to wear the hijab.

Despite the government’s intervention, the student’s father stated that the school’s stand had deeply hurt his daughter, who felt alienated and uncomfortable continuing in the same environment. He expressed concerns that the dispute could be exploited to create a communal divide between Christians and Muslims, even as he acknowledged the government’s favourable stance in addressing his complaint.

Meanwhile, the school authorities maintained that students were required to adhere to institutional rules and regulations and that the matter was pending before the court, despite there being no such rule about covering the head with a scarf, which does not come under the uniform policy.

The principal reiterated that the school wished to maintain a secular dress code, but they failed to explain how a scarf on the girl’s head would demoralise the secular fabric of the school when the teachers and the principal herself wear religious symbols of their faith, while instructing a student of another faith that she shall not follow hers inside the classroom.

The issue has since widened beyond the school premises, sparking debates on social and mainstream media over the limits of secularism in educational institutions. The Catholic Malayalam daily Deepika described the incident as a consequence of society’s silence over rising fundamentalism, while the Muslim clerics’ daily Suprabhatham criticised the school’s management, describing their actions as contrary to the spirit of the Constitution and national unity.