New Delhi: In a distressing incident from Uttar Pradesh, four Muslim female students were reportedly denied entry into an exam center due to wearing hijabs. The incident occurred at Serodia Inter College in Khidoli, Jaunpur district, where the exam center was shared by students from multiple schools, including Modern Convent School.
A viral video circulating on social media shows the affected students stating that when they arrived for their Hindi exam on Monday, they were stopped at the checking point and told they could only enter if they removed their hijabs. Witnessing this, six other students also decided to leave the center in protest.
One of the students’ fathers, Ahmed Ullah, explained, “The students were stopped at the gate and asked to remove their hijabs in order to enter.”
Defending the action, Dinesh Chandra Gupta, the college principal and exam center administrator, stated that they were strictly following Board of Education rules. He said, “Four students refused to comply with the rules and left with their families.” He further noted that out of 413 students, 153 were Muslim girls, and except for the four, all followed the guidelines and took their exams.
The college manager, Anil Kumar Upadhyay, clarified that the four students declined to remove their hijabs for the mandatory identity check, which required their faces to match their admit cards. To supervise the students, two female teachers, Rekha Yadav and Firdous Fatima, were assigned as invigilators.
This incident has reignited the hijab debate on social media, raising concerns about religious discrimination in educational institutions. Many see it as a violation of fundamental rights, particularly the right to practice one’s faith, as enshrined in the Indian Constitution.
The controversy has once again brought to the forefront discussions about the balance between religious freedoms and institutional regulations in education, with growing concerns over students facing exclusion due to their religious identity.
