On the Hijab Ban
Karnataka high court has upheld the government’s orders on the ban on wearing hijab (headscarf) by Muslim girls in school/college etc., places. In its verdict the high court said , India’s Karnataka state has ruled that the hijab is not “essential” to Islam. The three-judge bench held that allowing Muslim women to wear the hijab in classrooms would hinder their emancipation and go against the constitutional spirit of “positive secularism”. “There is sufficient intrinsic material within the scripture itself to support the view that wearing hijab has been only recommendatory, if at all it is. What is not religiously made obligatory therefore cannot be made a quintessential aspect of the religion through public agitations or by the passionate arguments in court,” the order says. The court, however, said the order was valid, holding that the government had the right to prescribe uniforms for students. There are many delicate issues involved here. The implications of this decision are