Senior schools reopened in the Indian state of Kar-nataka on Wednesday a week after authorities closed them in the face of protests against a ban on female students wearing the hijab.
A court is deliberating the recent ban on school-girls wearing the hijab imposed by Karnataka au-thorities, the latest issue of contention involving India’s Muslim minority, who make up about 13 per cent of the Hindu-majority country’s 1.3 billion people.
Students wearing olive-green uniforms, some in the hijab, walked hand-in-hand on Wednesday into the Government Girls Senior School P. U. in Udupi district, where the protests started this month. Male and female police stood guard.
All of the students were allowed, including the girls in hijabs, despite a ruling from the state’s High Court last week that schools should bar any reli-gious clothing in classrooms until further instruc-tions. The court will hear further arguments on Wednesday.
A hijab-wearing schoolgirl holds hands of her classmates as she arrives to attend the classes at a government girls school after the recent hijab ban, in Udupi town in the southern state of Karnataka, India, on Wednesday. — Reuters
Senior district official Kurma Rao M said talks were underway in the community on the court rul-ing.
“We have held a meeting with all religious lead-ers, various stakeholders on the implementation of the court’s interim order,” he was quoted as saying by ANI. The southern state of Karnataka is governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and the uproar comes as it campaigns for several important state assembly elections this year.
Karnataka’s state election will be held next year while India is due to hold its next general election by May 2024.—Reuters
