Mumbai. Nine girl students have filed a petition in the Bombay High Court against the hijab ban in Acharya College located in Chembur, Mumbai. The students have demanded the removal of the ban on hijab. Along with this, they have also accused the college administration of showing bias on the basis of religion. Nine girl students of NG Acharya and DK Marathe College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Mumbai have approached the Bombay High Court challenging the dress code recently implemented by the college administration. In the petition, the students said that the college’s ban is arbitrary.
Under this dress code, female students have been banned from wearing hijab on campus. The petitioner students claim that the new dress code violates their fundamental rights to privacy, dignity and religious freedom. A student of the college, Zainab Chaudhary, said that no one in the college could help us, so we only saw the way to court. We hope that the decision from the court will be in our favor.
Ummul Vara, another student of the college, said that when the matter of dress code came up, we thought of talking to the principal. I was not there at that time, my friend went to talk to the principal. We told her that we will not be able to follow the dress code. She clearly told us that we will have to follow the dress code.
After this, we talked to the management. Nothing came in our favor from there either. Now the classes have also started. There is pressure on us. We have been forbidden to sit in the class wearing burqa. The last option left for us was the court.
BSc student Khan Anjon said that we have not gone directly to the High Court. We tried as much as we could, when we did not find any option, we approached the High Court. For us, removing the veil is not a trivial matter. That is why we are taking this issue to the court.
Tags: Bombay High Court, Hijab controversy
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 15, 2024, 23:34 IST