Bengaluru, May 15, 2023 (PPI-OT): Kaneez Fatima, the Congress party’s sole Muslim woman Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Karnataka, has said that the ban on wearing hijab in educational institutions of the state will be lifted. Kaneez Fatima talking to reporters said, “God willing, we will reverse the hijab ban in the coming days and we will get those girls back to classrooms and they will be able to appear for their exams”. “They have lost two precious years.”
The Congress party secured a majority in the Karnataka Assembly, winning 136 out of 224 seats. Kaneez Fatima herself won her constituency by defeating the BJP’s candidate. The controversy regarding the hijab ban arose in December 2021, with protests spreading across the state. The Karnataka High Court upheld the ban, stating that wearing hijab was not essential to Islam. The matter was later challenged in the Indian Supreme Court, which has yet to form a bench to hear the case.
Following the death of her husband, Qamar-ul-Islam, in September 2017, Fatima contested the Assembly elections for the first time in 2018. In February 2022, she took the lead in organizing a protest of Muslim girls in Kalaburagi against the ban on wearing hijab.
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