Protests have erupted in India’s Karnataka state over some schools refusing entry to students wearing headscarves
Pakistan has condemned the Indian government for the “reprehensible act” of denying education rights to Muslim women who wear the hijab, summoning the Indian Charge d’ Affaires in Islamabad on Wednesday to convey Pakistan’s “grave concern.”
India’s southern Karnataka state on Tuesday ordered schools and colleges to shut for three days after protests erupted over some institutes refusing entry to students wearing the headscarf. Protests intensified over a ban on Islamic headscarves that has outraged Muslim students. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been criticized globally for discrimination and increasing violence against the minority Muslim population and described Modi’s silence as an endorsement of the crimes.
“Pakistan deplores the reprehensible act of banning Muslim girl students from wearing hijab in the Indian state of Karnataka,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it had summoned the Indian Charge d’Affaires.
“The Charge d’ Affaires was urged to convey to the Government of India, Pakistan’s extreme concern over the anti-hijab campaign, … which is part of its [Indian’s government’s] larger exclusionist and majoritarian agenda aimed at dehumanizing and demonizing Muslim women,” the statement said. “Government of India must fulfill its responsibility to hold the perpetrators of harassment against women in Karnataka to account and take adequate measures to ensure safety, security and well-being of Muslim women.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s adviser on religious harmony Dr. Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi announced the government’s decision to mark Friday as ‘Solidarity Day’ with Indian women for standing up to the hijab ban.
The video of an Indian Muslim girl named Muskan went viral on social media, showing her standing her ground against a charged crowd of Hindu students wearing saffron shawls typically worn by Hindus. In the videos, the mob can be seen heckling and jeering at Muskan before she turns toward them and defiantly shouts “Allahu Akbar.”