Remove Your Hijab to Sit in Exam, It’s India, Not Pakistan

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India Tomorrow
Aligarh, Feb 03— In another case of brazen bias on the part of the authorities, a post-graduate Muslim woman was asked by officials at a government exam centre in Agra of Uttar Pradesh to remove her hijab if she wants to sit in the exam. However, when she threatened to go to court, she was allowed in after screening by female staffers. Ironically, the incident took place on Saturday, day after the International Hijab Day.

Shakira Nomani, who is a post-graduate from Aligarh Muslim University, has narrated her ordeal on Facebook.

“Today I got a first-hand experience of communal bigotry at Swami Bagh Higher Secondary School, Agra (UP) where I went to appear in the UP PGT examination, conducted by Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Service Selection Board (UPSESSB). There I was asked to remove my hijab as a condition to get entry in the exam,” she wrote.

What she further wrote is more disturbing. When she was taken to higher officers of the exam centre, she was bluntly reminded that she was living in India, not in Pakistan, and so can’t demand any such right.

ALSO READ: Hijab Row at NET: Delhi Minorities Commission Issues Notice to UGC

“When I refused to do so and asked to meet the authorities, I was conducted into an office where some officials were sitting. When I approached the one seeming to hold the highest office among them and to whom I was presented (I couldn’t get to know his name and designation), and told him about the matter, asking him to grant me permission to appear in the examination with my headscarf on, citing my constitutional right to do so (covering head being a religious obligation for me), he rudely denied that I have any such right and said: “You don’t have any rights here, you are living in India, not in Pakistan”, and asked me to choose between hijab and exam, I chose the hijab and said that I would go to court to carry on this fight for my right. He, again exhibiting his insolent behaviour, said: “Go to whatever court you like and do whatever you can.”

However, at this stage, some sanity prevailed on other officers and they decided to resolve the issue.

“There were others who prevented him from saying anything further when I got furious at his comments. I collected my belongings (purse, cell phone, etc.) which I had submitted there as nothing was allowed in the examination hall and prepared to leave, exam having started already. They then sent another official to me, who claimed to be the sector magistrate, who asked me to stay and said that they had decided that I could wrap my scarf back after having it thoroughly checked by a female staff member and give exam. Matter, thus, resolved,” wrote Shakira and finished her comment with a question.

“But . . . is it resolved once and for all???”, she asked.

A similar incident had occurred with Umaiyah Khan, MBA final year student of Jamia Millia Islamia when she was prevented from appearing in NET JRF exam while in Hijab. She wanted to go through full screening by women staffers and then permission to wear her head scarf, but she was not allowed and she eventually could not sit in the exam.

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