Thread by @kavita_krishnan

On the one hand, auction Muslim women online & threaten to sexually enslave them. On the other, deny them the right to education. That’s BJP policy.
#thread on how the ban on hijab is not only unconstitutional but absurd.

https://twitter.com/dpkbopanna/status/1489117646482472961

Kerala HC has clearly held that it was unconstitutional for CBSE to prevent girls in hijab from taking exams. The same applies here in Karnataka. indiankanoon.org/doc/185172001/

Let’s take objections to the hijab in colleges, one by one.
1) It’s patriarchal.
Well, the official Lok Sabha site has a photograph of one of the chairpersons, Smt Rama Devi, with her head covered. Likewise MP @HarsimratBadal_; hijab/dupatta - potato-potahto.

2) Hijab is religious.
Well, Sikh boys wear turbans to school; Christian girls and boys often wear crosses; Hindu boys & girls wear religious lockets, threads on their wrists, rudraksh; Brahmin boys wear sacred threads. Why single out the hijab? Islamophobia is the only reason.

3) Covering the face creates security threats (at airports etc). Yeah now you’re running away from college to the airport, but I’ll answer anyway. We ALL wear masks now - the hijab doesn’t cover the face, only the head.

One last one on “hijab is patriarchal”. Well, no. All women feel the pressure of patriarchy on our choice of clothing, no matter if it’s a hijab/dupatta/miniskirt/lipstick. The answer isn’t to ban stuff or shame women & girls for their choice. Each one navigates their own course

Plus if indeed some girls are “forced” to wear hijab to go to school/college - how does it empower them to force them to attend “Islamic” institutions alone, to deny them the right to attend school of their choice?

Also, I feel it’s dangerous for courts to see such issues only through the prism of right to religious freedom based on whether or not some practice is “essential” to the said religion. That hardens the idea that hijab is essential for Muslim woman. Point is right to privacy +

So courts should come down hard on imposition of “modest” dress codes on girls & women in schools & colleges; as well as on hijab ban. Point should be, girls & women can’t be denied right to study in an institution of their choice because of what they wear.

As for those educational institutions that have uniforms - you allow Brahmin boys to wear sacred thread with the uniform right? Though it’s by no means “essential” to the Hindu faith & is in fact part of a discriminatory tradition? You do it coz right to privacy, autonomy.

Courts should uphold the right to wear hijab with uniform; wear skirts of any length in other colleges where there’s no uniform; transgender student’s right to wear uniform of the gender not assigned by birth; basically uphold the student’s right to privacy and autonomy.

Shaming women for not wearing hijab; shaming them for wearing hijab; denying right to education to women for so-called “immodest” clothing; or for wearing hijab - all these are abhorrent.

Remember this is happening in coastal Karnataka where since 2008-09, Sangh groups have been trying to segregate Muslims from Hindus Nuremberg-Nazi style, intimidating even a Hindu schoolgirl for visiting the home of her Muslim classmate - also a girl. peacewomen.org/content/india-…

Whether you approve or disapprove of hijabs, if you’re saying “let the hijabi girls attend Muslim-only colleges if they want to wear hijab” you’re enabling such Sanghi segregation, which helps in Hindu radicalisation & demonisation, othering of Muslims.