Karnataka Lecturer Resigns On Being Asked To Remove Hijab While Teaching

The principal called asking her to shun the hijab as classes must be conducted without any religious symbols.

Karnataka Lecturer Resigns On Being Asked To Remove Hijab While Teaching (File Image)

New Delhi: An English lecturer working as a guest faculty in a college in Tumakuru district of Karnataka resigned from her job on Friday after she was asked to remove her hijab while teaching.

“It is a matter of my self-respect. I can't teach without the hijab,” the lecturer said, as quoted by news agency IANS.

Tendering her resignation, she wrote, “Right to religion is a constitutional right which nobody can deny. I condemn your undemocratic act.”

The lecturer further said that she has been a guest faculty in Jain PU College for the last three years and she did not face any problem before. However, the principal called asking her to shun the hijab as classes must be conducted without any religious symbols.

“Since the last three years, I am lecturing wearing a hijab, it hurt my self-respect and I didn't want to work in that college anymore. Hence, I resigned voluntarily,” she said.

However, the college authorities have refused to comment on the matter.

The ongoing row can be traced back to the beginning of January when some students in Udupi and Chikkamagaluru started wearing hijab to schools as a mark of protest after some of them were not allowed to enter the classroom for wearing the headscarves.

The issue then spread across the state as several other schools and colleges issued similar diktats. The opposing groups of students started protesting both for and against the right to wear hijabs in the educational institutes. Those opposing the Muslim girls donned saffron scarves.

The row then escalated further with national political parties joining in to attack each other over the issue. The protests have further gained momentum by spreading to different parts of the nation and the matter is currently in the Karnataka High Court.