Bangalore, India, Feb 14, 2022 / 15:25 pm
Amid widespread protests over a ban on hijabs in schools, an Indian court has temporarily prohibited all forms of religious dress in schools while it considers a legal challenge to the hijab ban.
The current conflict began in September 2021 when a girl’s preparatory school in the Indian state of Karnataka moved to ban hijabs, saying the Muslim headscarves violated the school’s dress code.
In the months and weeks since, students at various schools in the region have protested the ban by wearing their hijabs and demanding to be let back into school. At the same time, mobs of Hindu nationalists, many wearing the saffron color associated with Hinduism, have protested at the schools in support of the hijab ban.
Hindus make up 84% of Karnataka’s people, while about 13% are Muslim and fewer than 2% are Christian.