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Hijab judgment raises more questions

The Karnataka High Court’s judgment upholding the state government’s order banning Muslim girls from wearing the headscarf or hijab in schools reflects a narrow view of the issue of religious and individual freedoms and, by extension, the question of secularism in India. The court has based its argument on several flawed interpretations. First, that wearing the hijab is not essential to Islamic practice. Second, that an institution’s right to prescribe a uniform does not violate Articles 19 and 24, which concern freedom of expression and privacy, respectively. It is interesting that the court has based its first explanation on a