صراط عشق صراط عشق
A video posted on Twitter showing a Muslim student wearing Hijab being heckled by Hindu far-right mob at a college in Karnataka state in India has outraged Muslims amid protests widen in the country over a ban on headscarves in the educational institutes. Muskan Khan was surrounded by men wearing saffron scarves as she arrived at her college in Mandya, the viral video showed, as she confronted the protesters, many of whom, she said, were outsiders.
“I was just there to submit an assignment; that’s why I entered the college. They were not allowing me to go inside just because I was [wearing] the Burqa,” Khan later told India’s NDTV news channel. “After that, they started shouting the slogan ‘Jai Shri Ram’. (Hail Lord Ram). Then I started to scream ‘Allah Akbar’ (God is great),” she said, adding that she would keep fighting for her right to wear the Hijab. “Ten percent [of the protesters] were from the college but [the rest of them] were outsiders,” Khan said, AlJazeera reported.
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 normalised in India today,” said ex-Chief Minister of India-administered 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 poor upbringing! No sympathy, no redemption for them. I spit on your kind (sic),” she wrote, according to TRT WORLD.
The ban on Islamic headscarves has outraged Muslim students who say it’s an attack on their faith enshrined in India’s secular constitution, while Hindu right-wing groups have tried to prevent Muslim women from entering educational institutions causing communal tension.
Fresh demonstrations on Tuesday saw police fire tear gas to disperse a crowd at one government-run campus, while a heavy police presence was seen at schools in nearby towns. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai from Modi’s BJP appealed for calm after announcing all high schools in the state would be closed for three days.
