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Students ‘denied entry’ to school for wearing ‘abaya’, stage protest in Srinagar
Girl students of a higher secondary school protested in Srinagar on Thursday after allegedly being banned from wearing ‘abaya’ by the management of the school. ‘Abaya’ is a long loose robe worn over clothes by Muslim women which covers the whole body except head, hands and feet.
Girl students of a higher secondary school protested in Srinagar on Thursday after allegedly being banned from wearing ‘abaya’ by the management of the school. ‘Abaya’ is a long loose robe worn over clothes by Muslim women which covers the whole body except head, hands and feet.
After the row, the principal of the school denied the allegations and apologised for any hurt caused.
The students of Class 11 and 12 of Vishwa Bharti Girls Higher Secondary School, Srinagar, came out protesting in Rainawari alleging that the principal was forcing them to remove abaya.
The students said that they were not comfortable without abaya more particularly after co-education was started in the school. They said that they had been studying in the school for the past many years and now the management was raising the “issue of abaya”.
“Yesterday, we were told that they won’t allow us to enter the school wearing abaya. They told us that our dress is not right as it is affecting other students. They said we should go to madrassa if we want to wear an abaya,” said a protesting student.
She claimed that the school was discriminating against the students wearing abaya for the past few days by not allowing them to perform school duty and other activities.
“Our principal says that we should move on and remove abaya. How is abaya a hindrance to education? We are school toppers, and we just want to study in peace,” she said.
Another student said that they tried to reason with the school principal but to no avail. “We are not comfortable among boys without abaya but they told us that we should go to madrassa if we don’t want to remove abaya,” she said.
The school principal, Nimroz Shafi, said she asked students to come in white hijab (headgear covering hair and neck) as a uniform. “They come wearing multiple colours and designs. We told them to come in white long hijabs,” she said.
Later, she released a statement apologising for any hurt caused. “That it has been running on social media that female students have been directed not to wear abaya (long robe) which is totally baseless and misrepresented. The school management always respects the sentiments of all the sections of society vis a vis the dress code. It is clarified that no ban has been imposed by the school principal or the management on wearing abaya but it was politely conveyed to the students to wear school uniform underneath the abaya,” she said in a signed statement.
“It is for the information of all students that they can wear the abaya and no such restrictions have been imposed in the classrooms. Today’s conversation with the students and the parents has been misrepresented and in any case if it has hurt the sentiments of the students or the parents, I unconditionally apologise for the same,” it said.
The issue caused uproar among the people and political parties.
People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti cautioned of ‘bad reaction’ to the alleged directive by the school and warned against any attack on religious practices of people of J&K.
“J&K has become a laboratory to turn this into Godse’s India. The issue (of hijab) had started in Karnataka and now they want to implement it in J&K. This is unacceptable and will elicit a bad reaction. Whosoever wants to wear anything should be one’s personal choice. Nothing should be imposed,” she said.
“Our Constitution has allowed us freedom to wear, eat or have a religion. All this is being attacked which is unacceptable and won’t be tolerated,” she said.
J&K Grand Mufti Nasirul Islam said that the school was earlier a girls-only school which was converted into a co-educational institution. “Girl students have every right to wear burqa in a co-ed school and the administration should also keep in mind that a dress code is also related to one’s religion or modesty as well,” he said.
BJP’s J&K general secretary (Org) Ashok Koul said that every person has a right to wear whatever one wants. “Somebody wants to wear a sari or a shalwar, it is one’s personal choice. There should be no coercion. Everybody is free and let everyone wear as per his/her choice,” he said.
However, J&K Waqf Board chairperson and BJP leader Darakshan Andrabi said that uniform was a must in educational institutions. “There is uniformity in educational institutions when a uniform is worn and a university, college, court or a doctor works according to a code,” she said.
