Hijab Empowering Muslims in India

Social media hails Muskan Khan, a Muslim female student, for confronting members of a far-right group outside a college in southern Karnataka state, as protests widen in the country over a ban on Islamic headgear or hijab.

A Muslim girl wearing a hijab in southern India’s Karnataka state has been hailed for braving threats and heckling by a Hindu far-right mob outside a college, as protests intensified over a ban on Islamic headgear in the educational institutes that has outraged Muslim students in all of India.

In a video posted online by campaigners on Tuesday, Muskan Khan is seen parking her two-wheeler outside a college in the city of Mandya before she is heckled by Hindu members of a right-wing group with “Jai Sri Ram” (Hail Lord Ram) chants.

The girl reacts by raising her hand and shouting back: “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is Great).

Khan, who stood up to a mob of saffron scarf-clad men, later told NDTV –– a local TV channel –– she “was not worried about facing them alone and that she would keep fighting for her right to wear the hijab.”

“I have always worn the hijab in college,” she said, adding the school never had issues with her clothes and it’s “the outsiders” who have stirred the controversy in the province ruled by PM Narendra Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (or BJP).

The unrest also spread to at least a dozen other campuses in the state. On Tuesday, officials ordered schools to close for three days as the police struggled to respond to intensified demonstrations.

Support Grows for the Muslim Girl 

Immediately after the video went viral, Khan was called “lioness”, “hero”, “brave”, and “courageous” on social media.

“How brave these men are and how macho they must feel while targeting a lone young lady! Hatred for Muslims has been completely mainstreamed and normalized in India today,” said ex-chief minister of India-held Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, while commenting on the video in a tweet.

Bollywood actor Richa Chadha slammed the mob and tweeted in support of the woman.

“Raise your sons better! A bunch of ugly, cowards attacking a lone woman in a pack and feeling proud of it? WHAT LOSERS! Shameful. They’ll be jobless, more frustrated, and penniless in a few years. What a poor upbringing! No sympathy, no redemption for them. I spit on your kind (sic),” she wrote.

Aakar Patel, who is the Chair for Amnesty International India, wrote on Twitter, “Shekhar and I have written a thousand columns each none of which amounted to or achieved what that woman did today,” referring to Shekhar Gupta, founder of news website The Print, whose editorial over the hijab ban drew widespread flak.

Global rights champion Malala Yousafzai called the hijab ban for students “horrifying”, adding, “Objectification of women persists – for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalization of Muslim women.”

Originally published on www.trtworld.com