The governor also justified the signing of the ordinance of the Left government to amend the Lokayukta Act of the state.
New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram:
Amid the ongoing controversy over wearing hijab in schools and other educational institutions in Karnataka, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Friday said that in the history of Islam there have been cases of women refusing to wear the veil.
He was responding to a question about his stand on the ongoing hijab controversy in the neighboring state.
Although he did not elaborate on his point, Khan told the story of a young woman, said to be a relative of the Holy Prophet, to prove his point.
“I’ll just tell you a quote… a young girl, who herself grew up in the house of the Prophet … and she was the niece of the Holy Prophet’s wife. She was cosmically beautiful…,” he said . “That’s what history says… read this,” Khan told reporters.
Citing the story, he said that when the woman’s husband was the then governor of Kufa in medieval times, she was reprimanded for not wearing the hijab.
What he said was that God had made him beautiful and the Almighty had put a seal of beauty on him, the governor said.
“She said that I want people to see my beauty and see God’s grace in my beauty…and be thankful to God…that’s how the first generation (Islam’s) women behaved. That’s all I want Say yes,” said Mr. Khan.
The hijab controversy, which first erupted in January at a government pre-university college in Udupi, where six students who attended classes wearing headscarves in violation of the prescribed dress code, were asked to leave the campus, Hindu students With has spread to different parts of Karnataka. They are also reacting by wearing saffron shawls.
Such saffron-clad students are also being stopped from entering the classes.
Meanwhile, the Governor also justified the signing of the Left government’s ordinance to amend the Lokayukta Act of the state, for which he was strongly criticized by the opposition Congress.
Stating that he would not decide on the merits of the ordinance, Mr Khan said the bill was with him for more than three weeks.
Stating that it was the elected government and his responsibility, he said he could have his own opinion (on the matter) but found nothing against the constitution in the bill and hence he signed it.
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