NC MPs stage walkout from Lok Sabha over harassment of Hijab-wearing women

SRINAGAR — The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Members of Parliament Dr Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi and Muhammad Akbar Lone staged a walkout in Lok Sabha to protest the Karnataka Government’s handling of the Hijab row.

Later expressing concern over the row, which has spilt over to other colleges in Karnataka, the MPs said the female students wearing Hijab being heckled by a mob in Karnataka is disturbing and the hush in the government circles of the state over the matter is equally of great concern. They said the decision to wear Hijab should be left to women and girls.

Expressing concern over the Karnataka Government’s shoddy handling of the issue, they said it is reflective of the endemic patriarchy and communal mindset at play.

They said these incidents should not be seen in seclusion but as a part of enforcing homogeneity at the expense of the country’s multifarious cultural, linguistic, religious, and ethnic diversity.