Students asked to remove hijab to write SSC exam in Maharashtra

A few hijab-wearing students on Thursday, March 3, were not allowed to sit for a Staff Selection

A few hijab-wearing students on Thursday, March 3, were not allowed to sit for a Staff Selection Commission (SSC) exam at a Byculla school in Maharashtra despite knowing that the Maharashtra students’ board allows students to wear the veil in the examination hall.

The girls were refused to step inside the examination hall by a woman invigilator, as mentioned in a newspaper report.

In the wake of this humiliation, the students’ families contacted the board helpline number, where they got a confirmation that “students can take the exam wearing the hijab.” Following this, Siddhe shwar Chandekar, secretary of the board’s Mumbai division, said, “There is no rule in the state board that disallows students from wearing hijabs or burkhas.”

According to media reports, this is not the first sectarian issues subjected to the Muslim minority in India. In 2014, a similar incident took place, when around 40 girls were punished for not attending school after spending the night before, which was Lailat al-Qadr, praying and supplicating to Allah Almighty.