Hijab ban in schools creating hysteria, contends a psychiatrist in High Court

Ban on hijab in schools was 'creating mass hysteria' and had 'disturbed mental health of poor Muslim girls', neuro-psychiatrist Vinod G Kulkarni, who appeared as a party-in-person for one of the petitioners, pleaded in the Karnataka high court on Thursday.

Kulkarni pleaded that the court permit girls to wear hijab with the uniform as it was 'not against public order or morality'. The girls should be permitted to wear hijab to schools and colleges at least on Fridays, the auspicious day for Muslims, and in the month of Ramadan, he pleaded.

However, chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, heading the bench, also comprising justices Krishna S Dixit and Justice Khazi Jaibunnisa Mohiuddin, questioned Kulkarni's contention that the Koran has said 'Muslim women should wear hijab and not expose their body parts such as head, neck etc', and could not be ignored. Chief justice Awasthi asked him to show the Koran passages which said so for the court to accept his argument. He agreed to show it later. Kulkarni argued that a 'ban on wearing hijab amounted to banning the Koran', to which, the CJ wondered how both were the same. He told Kulkarni that there was no ban on hijab in the state, but only in schools.

Kulkarni urged the HC to pass an interim order to 'prevent unrest in society'. With arguments for the petitioners completed, advocate general Prabhulinga Navadgi will present his arguments of the state government on Friday. Karnataka's minorities welfare department, meanwhile, in an order said restrictions on wearing hijab, saffron scarves and other religious dress would be imposed in residential schools and colleges run by the department too. Reports of students refusing to enter colleges and schools without hijab were reported on Thursday too.