The hijab row in Karnataka affected high schools on Tuesday when the students of Government Composite Urdu High School in Mallar, Kaup in Karnataka’s Udupi district found themselves being separated from their classmates on Monday, February 14. While the hijab row has been rocking many various educational institutions in Karnataka, this is a first where the girls, all from classes 8, 9, and 10, were asked to remove their hijab in a minority Urdu school.

Almost all the 51 students at the school are Muslim, and of the 22 girls, nine are from class 10, and wanted to enter the school on Tuesday to write their preparatory exam. They were sent to a separate classroom as the school authorities discussed the issue. The tehsildar, Srinivas Murthy, also told the media that they would have a meeting with the parents and teachers and give further instruction on the matter. In the afternoon, it was decided that students who turned up for the preparatory exams on Tuesday would be allowed to wear the hijab and complete their examinations.

However, most of the girls from classes 8 and 9, did not turn up for school on Tuesday. Their parents say that the students were not taught lessons and asked to remove their hijab on the school campus on Monday. Their parents staged a protest outside the school on Tuesday morning calling for the school to allow the students to wear the hijab again. “We have come to the school to protest against the decision to bar students wearing the hijab. Some of the parents have held the students back at home, others had to come because it's a preparatory exam today for class 10. There was no issue till this week but the school is now insisting that girls should not wear hijab,” Haseena Adil, the parent of one of the students, told TNM.

The principal of the school, Joyce, said that the students were segregated based on the state government’s order and given that the issue is pending before the high court. The government order in question is one issued on February 5, where the state government directed colleges under the Pre-university Department’s jurisdiction to ensure that uniforms mandated by the College Development Committee or board of management should be worn. The order also said that if there is no mandate for a uniform, students should wear attire that is in the interest of unity, equality and public order.

B Haider, a ward level BJP leader and a member of the School Development Monitoring Committee (SDMC), said that the issue was not discussed by the SDMC before it was decided that hijab-wearing students would be restricted. “They should not have said this before the SDMC meeting was conducted. Till now, there was no problem created over this. But why did they decide now without discussing what happens in minority schools?” Haider told TNM.

It should be noted, however, that students wearing the hijab were using the college uniform’s olive green coloured dupatta on their heads as the hijab, and not a separate garment. The students enter the school in a burqa (as shown in the picture) and then change in the school washroom, using the college uniform dupatta as the hijab. The students had been doing so even before the hijab row erupted in Karnataka, at the 165-year-old school. However, this is the first time that they were singled out and segregated for the practice.

Alongside the government-run Urdu school, the students at the Maulana Azad English Medium School, which is located next to the government school, faced similar problems with the school restricting the use of hijab in the campus. Police officials were posted on the school campus as a large number of parents had gathered at the school.