Umaiyah Khan claimed she was stopped from entering the examination centre in Rohini after she refused to take off her hijab.
A Muslim woman student at Jamia Milia Islamia has alleged that she was not allowed to appear for UGC-NET examination because she wanted to sit in the exam hall wearing hijab.
Umaiyah Khan, an MBA student at the university in Delhi, said she was due to appear for her JRF NET exam on December 20 but she was barred from sitting when she insisted on keeping on her headscarf.
According to a report in The Telegraph, she was stopped at the gate of the exam centre at the Ojas Institute of Management in Rohini and was asked to remove her hijab by the staff.
She insisted on wearing the hijab and asked the women staff to frisk her thoroughly in a secluded space but she was allegedly denied entry into the centre.
A similar incident took place in Goa where a Muslim student claimed that she was stopped from entering the examination centre with her hijab on.
NET is conducted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to determine eligibility for college and university level lecturership and for the award of Junior Research Fellowship. This year the exam was being conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
1. 'Violation of my rights'
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Taking to Twitter to express her grief and anger about the incident, Umaiyah said, "It clearly says in Constitution that we are free to follow any religion yet this chauvinistic government servants didn’t let me appear in my NETJRF 20 Dec 2018 exam because I was convincing them to let me cover my head and it’s in my religion." In another tweet, she said, "You can't stop corruption, rape, murder, lynching but you are so proudly and openly violating our fundamental rights."
2. ‘Rule hai’
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Talking to The Telegraph, Umaiyah narrated the incident as follows: "I arrived at the gate of the centre at 1.06pm. A male employee checked my hall ticket and asked me to remove my hijab and put it in my handbag. I requested him to ask the three women staff present at the spot to check me separately, during which I could remove my hijab. But all the staff members insisted that I cannot wear it during the exam. I asked them to tell me the reason or rule under which hijabs are not allowed. It was not written on my hall ticket. They did not reply, and just kept repeating: ‘rule hai’. I told them that my religion does not allow me to keep my head uncovered in public. The hijab is part of my identity. I finally left without writing the exam around 1.45pm."
3. Another incident in Goa
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Another woman in Goa accused officials of not allowing her to appear for the examination after she refused to take off her hijab. Safina Khan Soudagar alleged that when she arrived at the examination centre in Panaji on December 18, the supervisor there asked her to remove her hijab. When she refused to do so, he did not allow her to sit for the test, Soudagar told media persons in Panaji.
Soudagar said she reached the exam centre at 1 pm on Tuesday and stood in the queue when the process of checking the identity cards (IDs) of candidates began. "When I reached the inspecting official, he looked at my documents, he looked at me and asked me to remove my headscarf, saying I will not be allowed inside the examination hall with it," she said. The woman then told the official that she cannot remove the scarf as it is "against her religious belief".
"He began arguing with me and consulted a senior woman official who was standing next to him," she said. Soudagar said the male supervisor then asked her to show her ears so as to confirm her identity on the photograph. "I eventually agreed to show my ears and asked the officials to direct me to the washroom so that I could re-adjust my hijab. They refused to direct me towards the washroom. Removing hijab in public is against my Islamic belief because there were lot of men around," she said.
She said the officials then informed her that she would not be allowed to enter the examination hall with her headscarf.
4. 'No dress code specified'
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Soudagar said while applying for the exam earlier, she had gone through the rules on the website concerned and it nowhere mentioned the dress codes. "There was nothing regarding hijab or dress code," she said.
5. Official claims UGC guidelines
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When contacted, a senior official of the Directorate of Higher Education in Panaji, which assists the UGC in conducting the exam, said "not just hijab, even mangalsutra (sacred necklace worn by married Hindu women) or any other accessory is not allowed in the examination centre to prevent cheating and also from the security point of view". He added: "There are stringent guidelines by the UGC to ensure that the examination is held in a very transparent manner and the officials were only following it."
However, contrary to his claims, neither the exam notification nor the “important instructions for candidates” printed on admit cards specify any dress code.
6. Rules for frisking and arriving well in time, says NTA
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NTA director-general Vineet Joshi told The Telegraph: “We have rules for frisking and arriving well in time, according to Supreme Court guidelines. We have advised the centres that women should only be frisked by women. In the Goa case, the examinee was asked to proceed to an enclosure for frisking, which she refused. We are sensitive to matters of faith and gender and several women have appeared for the exam wearing headscarves. There is no ban on them. I got to know of the Delhi incident today, and will get the report on it tomorrow.”
