Udupi: Two students who had filed a petition seeking Hijab to be allowed inside classroom were today turned away from the examination centre of their final class 12 board examination. They were insisting to wear Hijab and sit for exam. Aliya Assadi and Resham had collected their hall tickets and turned up donning burqas to take the exams at the Vidyodaya PU College in Udupi. They tried to convince the invigilators and the college principal, but they were eventually not allowed any exception to the court order upholding the state government’s ban.
They left without giving the exam.
The Karnataka Pre University Board is conducting the second Pre University exam for class 12 from today. As per the education department, around 6,84,255 students have registered for the exams. The exams will be held at 1,076 centres in the state. There is tight security at the centres. Cops are deployed at various centres to ensure there are no untoward incidents with regard to students following the dress code.
The state Education Minister BC Nagesh categorically said, “Students won’t be allowed to take their exams in the hijab.” This comes in the wake of many Muslim female students requesting the Minister to allow them to wear their hijabs during the final exams.
17-year-old Aliya Assadi who is at the forefront of the battle against the state’s Hijab ban had last week made a renewed appeal to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai saying that he still had a chance “to stop our future from getting ruined”.
In her appeal, Aliya, who is a state-level Karate champion, said the ban on hijab or headscarves will affect many students who want to appear in the Pre-University exams.
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