The Home Minister, Mehmood Ali, has responded to the incident involving the instruction for female students to remove their burqas and write exam in the old city of Hyderabad.
In his reaction, the Home Minister acknowledged that a mistake might have been made but emphasized the government’s secular policy. He stated that there is no written rule prohibiting the wearing of burqas and ensured that appropriate action would be taken against those responsible for the incident.
Several Muslim students from Women’s Degree College, located at the IS Sadan intersection in Santosh Nagar, Hyderabad, had arrived wearing hijabs to write their Urdu Medium Degree exams. However, upon reaching the examination center, they were asked by the college staff to remove their hijabs. The students reported being prevented from participating in the examination for approximately thirty minutes. Eventually, some students had to comply and remove their hijabs before entering the examination center.
According to the students, the staff informed them that they could wear their burqas after the exam.
The students expressed that wearing a burqa during exams is permitted in other colleges, but in this particular college, they were instructed to remove it.
