Booked for ‘resisting ABVP’, Muslim student from Karnataka vows to fight for right to wear Hijab

NEW DELHI — Until last Friday, 18-year-old Hiba Sheik was an ordinary student in the Mangalore town of Karnataka. One episode at Dayanand Pai-Sathish Pai Government First Grade College has changed her life. After a video of her confronting male students went viral, she has emerged as one of the faces of the fight by Muslim girls against the ban on the Hijab (Muslim headscarf) in schools and colleges of her state.

By Zafar Aafaq

The viral video shows Hiba in hijab, confronting a bunch of male students as she asks them fiercely, “Is this your dad’s college? We also pay fees and come here.”

She was not allowed to enter the premises by some male students to write exams in Hijab after the college principal had allowed her and several other Muslim students to write the exams.

The male students attempted to heckle her but the police and college officials who are present on the scene eventually help in pacifying the situation.

Ever since her video has gone viral, Hiba said she has faced “a barrage of online harassment by right-wing Hindu trolls,” and a case has been filed against her by Mangalore police.

Talking to TwoCircles.net, she alleged she was facing death threats. “Trolls targetted me by saying “We will murder you and even your body will not be found,” she said. “This is because I chose to defy them and stood up for herself and other Muslim girls.”

A day before the incident, Hiba said, a group of students led by one Sai Sandesh, affiliated with Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), barged inside the exam halls and snatched the answer sheets of some Muslim girls writing their exams who were wearing Hijab. “He asked me to get out of the exam hall. He sounded like he was giving me an order.”

ABVP is a right-wing student organization affiliated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

“The Muslim girl students had been given permission by the principal to sit in the exams and a separate arrangement was made for them in the library,” Hiba said.

Hijab has become a contentious issue in the state after a group of Muslim girls at a college in Udupi in December last year demanded that they should be allowed to wear the headscarf as it was part of their faith and identity. Many other colleges in the state have since banned the Hijab, pending the High Court verdict on the issue.

However, the principal of our college had allowed us to cover our heads with the dupatta of the uniform, she said.

“But after Sandesh objected, the lecturers evicted Muslim girls from exam halls,” she said.

Hiba said that the Muslim students felt humiliated and angry asking “what authority Sandesh (who is a student) had to stop Muslim girls from appearing in exam halls when the principal had allowed them to appear in exams with heads covered.”

She further alleged that Sandesh filmed videos of Muslim girl students without their consent even though phones are not allowed in the library.

The next day the Muslim girls were stopped at the gate and not allowed to enter the campus by the college officials. “We asked the principal for permission but he did not let us in. He was under pressure from ABVP,” she said.

After waiting for several hours, Hiba confronted Sandesh and his colleagues as soon as they came out of the campus. The altercation was caught on camera.

As soon as the video surfaced on the internet, it went viral and Hiba was being hailed for putting up a courageous response. After the altercation, Hiba showed up at North Mangalore police station to file the complaint against Sandesh and others. She said that the police instead of registering the case asked questions to her for hours. “It was after five hours the case was registered when the commissioner arrived and heard my plea,” she said.

However, three days later on Monday March 7, the police in Mangalore booked Hiba and seven other Muslim students including the girl whose video of confronting a group of ABVP affiliated students who were blocking her way to the college went viral on the internet last week.

The police have charged Hiba and others of threatening and insulting the complainant and booked them under Indian Penal Code sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace).

A police official in Mangalore told TwoCircles.net the FIR was filed on the complaint of Kavana Shetty, a female student who is also a local leader of the ABVP. He said they have filed the case using viral video as evidence, adding any further action including the arrest of the accused would depend on what the investigation reveals. “The complaint said that Hiba and others used foul language against Shetty and threatened her,” he said.

Hiba, however, denied all the charges alleging she and her friends were being framed and that the case was a “pre-planned conspiracy” against them. She said that Shetty was not even present at the spot during the altercation.

After her viral video, and threats and the subsequent case against her, Hiba has received support from student groups and the Muslim community. Student group Campus Front of India, which has been rallying in support of Hijab, has condemned the FIR against Hiba. The group also provided space for Hiba to hold a press conference after the FIR. The group’s state president Athavulla Punjalkatte said that police have resorted to “victim-blaming.” He warned that the case would help embolden the “goondaism” (bullish behavior) of ABVP.

Finding herself at the center of attention is not something Hiba wanted. “I do not want to be famous. I just want my right to wear a Hijab. I want to wear the Hijab like we used to before this issue started and mingle with our non-Muslim friends,” she said.

The teenager who is in the second year of college wants to be a police officer. “It is my childhood dream to be an IPS (Indian Police Service) officer. I am working hard for my goal.”

When asked why she wants to join the force that has filed a case against her, she said, “The police are colluding with criminals and corrupt people. Those who deserve justice do not get it. I want to join the police to make a change.”

Hiba, who has done her schooling in Kerala, said her mother and her aunt are her inspiration in life. 

For her, wearing a Hijab is a matter of faith and choice. “It is part of my faith and I should be allowed to wear a hijab. It is my individual choice and no one is forcing me to wear it,” she said.

She said the online threats and FIR are aimed at “silencing her.”

“I would continue to fight to wear a Hijab. It is a fight for our rights,” she added.

Zafar Aafaq is a journalist based in New Delhi.

Courtesy : TwoCircles.net

Note: This news piece was originally published in twocircles.net and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights objectives.