The hijab dispute, which originated in coastal Karnataka, has sparked waves of outrage across India. Muslims in many states have taken to the streets to demand the right to wear hijab/burqa inside school and college campuses in violation of the existing uniform dress codes. Like many other states, pro-hijab protests have surfaced in West Bengal too.
Almost 500 Muslim students of Aliah University, an autonomous university under the state government, had taken to the streets last week with placards, raising slogans to protests against the ongoing hijab controversy raging in several educational institutions in Karnataka.
Interestingly, this is the same college whose students had in the year 2010 compelled a teacher to quit for not wearing a burqa to the college campus. According to reports, eight teachers had been forced by students of the Aliah University to wear burqas to college even though the university had no dress code. While seven teachers yielded to the demands, one teacher, Shirin Middya, 24, refused to give in to the pressure and chose to resign instead.
Shirin Middya, 24 at that time, had been hired as a guest lecturer to teach Bengali literature at Aliah University in Kolkata, West Bengal’s first Islamic university, in March 2010. In the second week of April that year, she had received a diktat from the students union that mandated all women lecturers to wear burqas to college.
“During mid-April, the Students Union called us and told all eight women teachers to wear a burqa. The students union said don’t discuss this with authorities, just follow our order. We have forced students to wear burqas, if you don’t you will have to leave the job,” Shirin had then informed, adding that she has no objections to wearing a burqa, but that she would do it of her own free will.
The students’ union had denied using coercion but admitted that they proposed wearing the burqa in keeping with the tradition of the Calcutta High Madarsa, where the Aliah University maintains a campus.
Students of Aliah University in West Bengal had put up posters to hound teachers for not wearing burqa
“We had told the authorities that this is a madarsa. The way she used to dress, it was an eyesore for us. The university doesn’t have a dress code but that doesn’t mean you can violate the madarsa’s tradition. We felt bad. So we objected,” said Md. Atiqur Rehman, General Secretary of Kolkata Madarsa Students Union.
The harassment was so severe that the students’ union even put up posters declaring, “Those who refuse to wear the burqa should leave.” In the face of the threats, the majority of the teachers backed down. In the end, Shirin was the only woman standing.
Fearful of unrest erupting, the university relocated Shirin Middya to its Salt Lake campus as an assistant librarian. She had written to the government about her situation and had requested justice.
Speaking about the intimidation she and the other teachers had to face, Shirin had said: “Initially, even they (other women lecturers) had refused. But the students prevented them from entering the classrooms. Eventually, they decided to give in to the union and requested time to get hold of a burqa, which was granted’ by the student leaders. But I refused to budge and wrote a complaint to minority affairs minister Abdus Sattar and the vice-chancellor. I was then removed to Salt Lake as an assistant librarian,” she said.
Nearly for four months, Shirin kept fighting for her rights and awaited government action, until in August 2010 the university authorities asked her to resume her duties without wearing a burqa.
“I have fought hard to get where I am and have not learnt to take anything lying down,” she had reportedly told TOI after learning that she was transferred back to the main campus at Haji Mohammed Mohsin Square in West Bengal.