For many lecturers and teachers, who have a role in implementing the High Court of Karnataka’s interim order on the hijab issue, the last few days have been very tough.
Obeying the orders of the senior officers of the department, they had to send children refusing to remove the hijab out of the school. As many students entered into an argument with them, they had difficulty responding to them. At times, they became emotional when some students wept in the process.
A lecturer in a pre-university college in Shivamogga district told The Hindu that hijab had never been an “issue” in the college all these years. “Many Muslim girls attended classes regularly wearing the hijab. When all of a sudden this direction came, we had to implement it. A few girls obeyed the order and attended classes, but others refused and returned home. A girl, who is good at studies, was in tears when she was asked to remove the hijab. The moment was emotional for all of us teachers,” she said.
Another lecturer in a PU college in Hassan district said the first day after the interim order, all 19 Muslim girls of his class had attended the class with the hijab, as they did all these years. “We told them from the next day onwards they had to sit in the class without the hijab. We tried to convince them saying it was only a temporary measure as the final order was yet to come. But, sadly from the next day onwards none of them turned up,” he said.
However, many private college managements are handling the issue without allowing the situation to go out of control. A vice-principal in a private college in Ballari district said there had been no tension over the hijab row in the college.
Amicable handling
“Many Muslim girls have been attending classes and removing the hijab in the classrooms. There are a few who refuse to remove, but we don’t force them. Moreover, no other student has objected to girls wearing the hijab in the classrooms. No student came with a saffron shawl to create any controversy in our college. We could handle the situation well because of the teachers’ rapport with students’ groups,” he said.
