Bengaluru witnesses balloons with messages supporting students wearing hijab

Bengaluru: Amid the controversy over the matter in Karnataka, several people have shared balloons with messages supporting students wearing hijab in parts of Bengaluru. This comes ahead of the state High Court's hearing on the hijab case. One of the notes seen in the pictures also mentioned Article 25 of the Constitution which gives the freedom to practice religion.

Across Bangalore city, women wrote messages on heart shaped balloons and placards demanding their right to education, their right to choose what they wear and their right to religious freedom. With the theme of #HeartsForTheConstitution', this public action was in solidarity with all the Muslim students who are being denied their fundamental rights. During the last one month, several colleges in Karnataka have denied entry to Muslim women, stating that they must remove their hijab before entering college premises. These events are tearing apart the multicultural and syncretic fabric of Karnataka, said one of the activists.

Bangalore's women felt that questions must be raised to the government about why Muslim students have suddenly and arbitrarily been denied education on the basis of their hijab. The activists said, "Educational institutions had barely reopened after COVID and students were already struggling to receive quality education. The current tense atmosphere in educational institutions has made the situation even worse. We are also extremely concerned about the way students are attacking their own class mates for exercising fundamental rights which is reflective of the worrying status of fraternal relationships amongst youth today. The public sight of gangs of boys chasing a young woman student and forcing her to remove her burkha in a college is nothing short of sexual harassment of women in public spaces and also a public display of xenophobia." "The leakage of personal details of Muslim students of Udupi has rendered more vulnerable to further attacks. It is shocking that neither the police nor the state women's rights commission have taken any action on any of this. One must recognise the right to education of women was a consequence of an uphill battle fought by women's rights movements for many decades," said Nisha, one of the volunteers.

Exemplary women like Savitri Bai Phule and Fatima Sheikh pioneered the cause of female education. The interim order of the high court dated 11th Feb must be seen in this light. By putting the onus back on the women to choose between education and faith it amounts to a tacit denial of both their right to education and their faith, she said.

Through the placards and heart-shaped balloons attention was drawn to the state's responsibility of ensuring the empowerment of women through education regardless of the customary markers of their identity they choose to wear - like the hijab and initiating action against the deliberate communalisation of this issue by mobs who are preventing the girls by going to school and college through using threats and intimidation.

Some of the messages were, 'My Body, My Choice', 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights', 'Have you read Article 25', 'Don't ask women to choose between an education and their faith', Don't paint education with the colour of religion and Let anyone shout, let the whole place protest, nothing can come close to the Constitution.

Another volunteer, Aishwarya said, "We certainly hope that the constitutional court takes into close consideration the right of Muslim women to receive an education which has historically been denied. We urge all concerned people of Karnataka to send similar messages of solidarity for the Muslim students with the #HeartsForTheConstitution, this valentine's day."