More than 150 secular human rights activists strongly condemn the attempt by Hindutva forces and the BJP government of Karnataka to engulf college and school campuses in the already raging communal fire in the state.
At the same time, IMSD disagrees with the claim of the agitating Muslim girls that their demand is in conformity with their Constitution-protected fundamental right to freedom of religion. While this may be the belief of the orthodox and patriarchal clerics, any number of modern-day Islamic scholars, men and women, rightly maintain that hijab has nothing to do with the teachings of the Quran and the Prophet. The veil, in other words, is not mandatory in Islam.
The signatories include leading progressive secularists from across the country, namely, Javed Anand, Prof. Zeenat Shaukat Ali, Shabnam Hashmi, Teesta Setalvad, Prof. Ram Puniyani, Feroze Mithiborwala, Kavita Srivastava, Varsha Vidya Vilas, Shama Zaidi, Javed Naqvi, Firoz Abbas Khan, Fr. Cedric Prakash, Lara Jesani, Prof. Nasreen Fazalbhoy, Ammu Abraham, Anjali Monteiro, Annie Namala, Anuradha Kapoor, Aruna Gnanadason, Prof. Brinelle D’souza, Navdeep Mathur, Adv. Niloufer Bhagwat, Persis Ginwala, Vidya Dinkar amongst others.
For the full statement & list of signatories, kindly refer to the attachments as below.