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The
row has drawn in Malala Yousafzai, the campaigner for girls'
education and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who survived being shot
aged 15 by a Taliban gunman in her native Pakistan in 2012, who
asked Indian leaders in a tweet to "stop the marginalisation of
Muslim women".
Local media reported last week that several schools in Karnataka
had denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the hijab citing an
education ministry order, prompting protests from parents and
students.
Hindu students mounted counter-protests, flocking to schools in
recent days in support of the ban, forcing the Karnataka state
government to shut schools and colleges for three days to ease
tensions between the two communities.
In one incident in a video widely shared online, a lone Muslim
student wearing the hijab is surrounded by Hindu male youths
shouting religious slogans while trying to enter her school in
Karnataka.
The protesting students in Kolkata on Wednesday were
predominantly women wearing hijabs, a Reuters eyewitness said,
adding the demonstrations were without incident. The students
told Reuters that they plan to reconvene on Thursday.
"We will keep protesting until the government stops insulting
the students," said Tasmeen Sultana, one of the protestors. "We
want our fundamental rights back…you cannot take away our
rights."
Protests have also been planned on Wednesday in India's capital
New Delhi.
"Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is
horrifying. Objectification of women persists — for wearing less
or more," Yousafzai said in a tweet late on Tuesday.
The government of Karnataka, where 12% of the population is
Muslim and which is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has said in an
order that students should follow dress codes set by schools.
Opposition parties and critics accuse the BJP government at
federal and state level of discriminating against the minority
Muslim population. Modi has defended his record and says his
economic and social policies benefit all Indians.
(Writing by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Alasdair Pal and
Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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