A minor controversy erupted in a college in Bihar yesterday (17 October) after some Muslim girl students accused a Hindu male teacher of forcibly removing their ‘hijab’ during examination.

The students had come to appear for exams wearing a headscarf covering hair, shoulders and neck — an attire that has come to be called as ‘Islamic headscarf’ or ‘hijab’, even though the translation of Arabic word hijab is a ‘curtain’ or ‘partition’.

The girls told the media that the teacher told them to remove the headscarf saying they might be hiding a Bluetooth device for cheating.

When the girls resisted, the teacher accused them of being anti-India by saying ‘Khaati yahan ka ho, gaati wahan ka ho’ (you live in India, but follow the ways of Pakistan), the girls said.

However, the principal and the teacher refuted the allegations saying the teacher was only being cautious against cheating by students. Principal Kanu Priya told the media that the teacher was only checking for a Bluetooth device and the girls’ allegations were wrong.

She said (as quoted by news agency ANI), “It's shocking that a class 11th girl will behave like this. It seems somebody has misdirected her in the name of religion and hijab. There's no discrimination based on religion or caste on school premises.”

A local news channel quoted a student named Ayman Fatima from the college as also supporting the principal.

Fatima said, “Some girls were complaining that Sir has got our headscarf removed. I told them that while it was good that they were wearing the scarf, Sir asked them to remove it only because students are known to cheat using Bluetooth devices.

“They started citing religion and all that. I wonder where does their religion go when they attend a function? How come they remember their religion only during exams? It it because of girls like these that people start questioning the religion itself.”

Asked by a journalist if the girls in the college are asked to remove their headscarf in general, Fatima said it never happens.

Watch the video here:

As per reports, while the matter reached the Mithanpura Police Station in Muzaffarnagar district, the station house officer Shrikant Sinha said that after talking to both sides and “counselling” them, no need was found for filing a police case or deploying security forces.

Since December 2021, controversy over Muslims girls insisting to wear Islamic headscarf over school uniforms has erupted in various parts of the country beginning from Karnataka.

Several girls students from Karnataka filed petitions in the High Court to be allowed to wear the headscarf for religious reasons. The court dismissed the demands by holding that wearing headscarf is not an essential religious practice in Islam.

The petitioners appealed against the verdict in Supreme Court, which gave its verdict last week. The two-judge bench gave a split verdict, which means the case will next be heard by a bench constituted by the Chief Justice of India.

The Karnataka government issued an order in February that any clothing that disturbs peace and harmony should be avoided, prompting schools and colleges to prohibit Muslim girls from wearing hijab.

The state government’s order came after hundreds of Hindu students in educational institutes began sporting an additional saffron shawl over their uniform in protest of “selective permission to Muslim women to showcase their religion”.