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School banning female teachers from wearing abaya doesn’t go down well with students and edu minister
DPS School’s ban on abaya for female teachers has generated a lot of opposition from all quarters including students, the separatist movement and the opposition. The government is in fire fight mode and inquiring the matter.
Jammu & Kashmir has been in the eye of the storm for an eternity now for all the wrong reasons. It is sad to see another reason being added to the already long and notorious list. The problems started after the resignation of a female teacher working at Delhi Public School (DPS) in Srinagar after the school management told her to “choose between her job and Abaya”. The matter quickly reached the students who boycotted classes and exams the next day demanding that the school management apologise to the teacher. The J&K government termed it a serious issue saying Jammu and Kashmir “is not France”.
“It (banning female teachers from wearing Abaya) is a serious issue,” J-K”s Education Minister Naeem Akhtar told the lower House on Saturday. “We live in a multi-religious, multi-cultural set-up. We have a secular fabric. No force on any such issue will be accepted. We are not France”.
The students are also demanding that the school recall the female teacher. The students say, according to the Principal the school is “following the rule” and that the school law says “no female teacher can wear Abaya inside the campus during the working hours”.
Education minister Akhtar said that the government would get to the truth of the matter. “It (DPS) is a Private school. We will get to the truth of it (issue of banning Abaya),” said. “We believe the management (of the school) is sensitive to the issues here”.
While the government tried to fire fight, the separatists have got fodder to speak as they said the ban on wearing of Abaya at the school is tantamount to “interference in religion”. “Jammu and Kashmir is a Muslim majority state and to raise objections on wearing of an Islamic dress here could have serious consequences,” said senior separatist leader and Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani. “There is no moral justification for it. The school should offer an unconditional apology and ensure that such a mistake is not repeated again”.
Mutahida Majlis Ulema (MMU), an amalgam of religious organizations headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said that said “un-Islamic and anti-Muslim measures would not be tolerated”.