Hijab row: Five girl students decide not to attend PU exams

Udupi: Five Muslim girl students of the government Pre-university here, who triggered a pro-hijab movement in the country, will not write the exams. The second-year students of the Government PU College for Girls, Almas A. H. and Hazra Shifa of the Science Stream, Aliya Assadi, Aliya Banu, and Resham of the Commerce Stream, have not taken their hall tickets to appear for the examinations, which begin on Friday. They have opted not to take the exam, which will last until May 18, because their plea to the education minister to enable them to take it while wearing a hijab was denied. A business studies paper is due on Friday.

Along with these five students, Bibi Ayesha, a science student who had also requested from the college principal that she be allowed to wear hijab in classroom, has not received hall ticket. The test centre for 258 second-year PU students from this college has been assigned to Vidyodaya PU College, Udupi.

The institution has sent emails to individual students to collect hall tickets, according to Principal Rudre Gowda. However, as of Thursday, 18 students, including these six Muslim girls, did not take their hall tickets.

He added that the science batch students had also failed to show up for the practical exam. He claimed there are 75 Muslim female students in the college, and all but six followed the dress requirement in the classrooms and are taking the exam.

The remaining 12 students who have not yet received their hall tickets, according to him, are from the North Karnataka region. They have been missing for a long time. "After the shift from online programmes, those North Karnataka kids never attended physical classes," he said.