Muskan Khan, a hijab-wearing student from Mandya, became an overnight sensation when a video showed her shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while a group of pro-Hindu students chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ heckling her as she walked towards her college. The incident took place in Mandya in 2022.
She came in support of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who said he has instructed his officials to lift the ban on hijab at a recent public event. Siddaramaiah, however, did a volte-face hours after making the statement, facing flak from the Opposition BJP, calling it minority appeasement.
Muskan Khan spoke exclusively to News18 about Siddaramaiah’s statement, her demands, and her pains for the future.
Q: How do you react to the statement made by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that the Congress government is contemplating lifting the hijab ban?
A: I was very happy. It made me glad that CM Siddaramaiah spoke about the hijab. Many of our sisters had dropped out of college and stopped their education. I would like to request them to continue their education as it is an important part of our lives. It is the main platform of our lives, and we must concentrate on it.
Q: You dropped out of college after the Hijab issue, so what have you been doing for the past 1.5 years?
A: Since I dropped out of college after the hijab controversy, I have been studying the Indian constitution and Islamic studies. Two Supreme Court lawyers had come to my home and given me a book on Indian law and Constitution, and I have been poring through them as well. I am also doing many other courses.
Q: Would you like to go back to your college to study?
A: If they allow us to attend college with a hijab, I would like to go back to the very college I had left and write my examinations there.
Q: There have been other petitioners who have approached the courts seeking the ban on hijab to be lifted. They too have not attended college since the ban. Some have joined colleges that allow hijab. What is your stand now?**
A: I would like to tell my sisters who have dropped out after the hijab issue to resume their education in colleges where there is no hijab restriction. Education is an important tool in our lives; we must focus on this as it is a big platform for us. I hope I can go back to college and continue to study with the same respect and love as before, as sisters and brothers.
Q: After the incident of heckling during the peak of the hijab issue, were you scared/afraid?
A: No. The entire India was with me. I had support across, and none of them were communal in nature. I was so happy with the support, including from my non-Muslim friends. I was scared on that day when I was heckled, and that’s why I took the name of Allah as I was afraid. People across religions, be it Hindu, Muslim, Christian, they all supported me.
Q: Udupi MLA Yashpal Suvarna, who is also known to be the poster boy of the anti-hijab campaign and in whose institution the Hijab ban was first introduced, said that the uniform is introduced in a school or college for uniformity, so that there is no differentiation based on religion, caste, or colour. That is why it is important to adhere to the dress code, what do you say now?
A: People have misunderstood our demand. They have not understood that our demand is only to wear a hijab, not a burkha. What I am wearing is a Niqab. We are not asking for this; we are saying we will wear the uniform with the Dupatta but place the dupatta/veil on our heads like a hijab. We will be in the prescribed uniform itself, but with the dupatta around our heads as a hijab. We will not wear the burkha in class, only the veil.
Q: If the permission is given to wear a hijab, and you say you still want to continue your education, what will be your stand?
A: We need to survive in the world and we also need ‘akhirat’ (goal). To live in this world, we need good education and to achieve that goal successfully, we need our hijab. We are trying to balance both.
Q: What do you want to do in your future?
A: I want to do my LLB and become a lawyer.
Comments
0 comment