Pakistani Women Rally in Karachi against Indian State Hijab Ban (+Video)
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Pakistani women rallied in Karachi on Sunday to denounce a ban imposed in a region in neighboring India on the wearing of the traditional headscarf, or hijab, by Muslim girls in schools.
Hundreds of women took to the streets in the southern port city of Karachi in a protest organized by a Pakistani Islamist political party, the Jamaat-e-Islami to demand the lifting of the hijab ban on Muslim women in Indian state of Karnataka.
Last week, a court in Karnataka, a state in southern India, told students not to wear any religious clothing until it delivers a verdict on petitions seeking to overturn the ban on hijabs. The petitions were filed by students challenging the ban, which some schools implemented recently.
Several Muslim girls who protested the ban had received threatening calls and were forced to stay indoors.
Udupi is one of three districts in Karnataka's religiously sensitive coastal region, which is a stronghold of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The stand-off has increased fear and anger among minority Muslims, who say the country's constitution grants them the freedom to wear what they want. Protests over the ban have escalated, with hundreds demonstrating this month in Kolkata and Chennai.
