DELHI – An Indian Muslim student was denied the right to board Delhi metro earlier this month, allegedly for donning a hijab, or Islamic headscarf.
“(H)ijab” is a religious sentiment for a Muslim girl. If there is any rule then why they did not consider Muslim women while making such rule,” Humera Khan, a Muslim student in Delhi, wrote on Facebook, Catch News reported on Tuesday, May 10.
“If they start making such provisions then girls like me would not have accessibility to such services. Metro is a public transport made for every citizen. If they have any security issue they should upgrade their security measures instead of making such rules.
“Besides, they made me remove my Hijab first, checked me thoroughly and then also didn’t let me in which was just so unacceptable,” Khan added.
Khan, who reportedly has been taking the metro since the last 2 years, was talking about the incident when she was barred from boarding Delhi metro earlier this month.
The university student wrote how the security forced her to remove her hijab for security check before banning her from boarding the metro.
“The security personnel asked me to remove the Hijab, I could not help smiling and followed her instruction gladly. She waved the beeping machine on my entire head (I was still smiling like a person I am, mad) then when I started to drape it again she said that it is not allowed. “You cannot board with this (the headscarf),” she wrote on Facebook.
Demanding a senior security staff to clarify the issue, a man asked Khan in a “very harsh tone” to either leave or remove the Hijab without giving any apt reason.
“I was left with no option except to leave, which I did,” wrote Khan.
Humera added in a later post that she had filed a complaint with the Delhi Metro. “If there exists such a rule I condemn it. I have filed a complaint to DMRC. Let them revert, let them intervene until then I would request you all to maintain peace,” her post reads.
“I was suggested to complain, to awaz uthao…but when an authority disrespects your rights and is the one who is abetting the wrong then to whom you should complain? Even if I had it would not have done me any good because I surpassed those minutes of mental harassment which these guys inflicted upon me,” she wrote.
Officials from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) did not respond to the complaint.
A Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) official said there was no such ban on hijab.
“It is only during a security check that people have to remove any veil or mask which covers their face. After that they are free to travel while wearing them,” CISF spokesperson Hemendra Singh told Twocircles.net.
“There is no guideline from us which bars a person from wearing a Hijab or a Burqa while travelling. This rule has always been in place. In the wake of the Rajinder Nagar heist, since the assailants were wearing masks, these guidelines were issued once again,” he said.