Hijab row: Thousands of Muslim girls have passed out without a single complaint, says principal of Christian school in Barabanki

NEW DELHI: A day after the Imam-e-Juma of Shia central mosque in Barabanki lodged a complaint with the basic shiksha adhikari (BSA) that his daughter, a student of class VII in the town’s famous Christian missionary school, Anand Bhawan, was not allowed to wear hijab (headscarf) inside the premises, school principal Archana Thomas said the row was the first of its kind in the 70-year-old institution’s history.
In his complaint, Maulana Mohammad Raza had said that wearing hijab was their “right and choice” and their fundamental rights had been violated.
“Our prospectus makes it clear that students have to adhere to our uniform. Our school was set up in 1948 and although more than half of our students are from that community, we never had a controversy like this,” Thomas told TOI over phone.
The principal said several hundreds of Muslim girls have passed out of the school without any complaints. “They take off the hijab once they enter the premises and may cover themselves again once they step out,” she said.
“The girl’s father has told reporters that I forcibly took off her scarf, which is not true. The girl has been our student since nursery and she never faced any problems here till last week,” Thomas added.
Lily Fernandes, president of registered society of Maids of the Poor, the body that runs the school said, “The row is both unnecessary and sad. We have Muslim teachers too in our school. Many of them cover their heads, some of them until their ankle. But as a rule, they enter classrooms without any of these things.”
Asked about the argument from the girl’s father that the school allows Sikh boys to cover their heads, Fernandes said, “For people who take their own religion and its practices so seriously, the best place for their children should be their own religious institutions. We have a governing body meeting coming up soon where we would discuss this issue.”
Shazia Fatima, Delhi-based head coordinator of the school’s alumni association, said, “We never faced any religious discrimination at Anand Bhawan and we are with our school.” The association’s president, Ahmad Faraz, an engineer in Doha, said, “I don’t know what politics is at work here now but we never faced any discrimination.”
Saharanpur sheher qazi Nadeem Akhtar, who attended a convent school and earned an MBA later, said the imam should not have sent his daughter to that school if he was so particular about hijab. “However, the school should also consider that Sikh men and Muslim women have been allowed to cover their heads even in armies of several countries. A place of learning should be the last place for clash of egos,” Akhtar added.