An Indian court Tuesday upheld a ban on wearing hijab in class in the southern state of Karnataka, saying the Muslim headscarf is not an essential religious practice of Islam in a ruling that is likely to further deepen religious tensions in the country.
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The high court in Karnataka state delivered the verdict after considering petitions filed by Muslim students challenging a government ban on hijabs that some schools and colleges have implemented in the last two months. The ban does not extend to other Indian states, but the court ruling could set a precedent for the rest of the country.
The dispute began in January when a government-run school in Karnataka's Udupi district barred students wearing hijabs from entering classrooms, triggering protests by Muslims who said they were being deprived of their fundamental rights to education and religion.
More schools in the state followed with similar bans and the state's top court disallowed students from wearing hijab and any religious clothing pending a verdict.
The court in its ruling said the state government had the power to prescribe uniform guidelines for students as a "reasonable restriction on fundamental rights."
Some rights activists have voiced concerns that the ban could increase Islamophobia.
"No one can understand our anxiousness about what is to follow," Afreen Fatima, a New Delhi-based student activist, wrote on Twitter. "The court's Hijab ban is a great injustice and a very worrying precedence. The scale of its repercussion is going to be brutal and inhuman."
