Mangalore, April 28: In the wake of controversy over its burqa ban regulation the St Aloysius College, Mangalore, has appealed the media not to blow the issue 'out of context'.
“We, the management, principal and the staff wish to state that all Muslim girls are welcome to study in St Aloysius College”, said the College's official press release, which bears signatures of Joseph Rodrigues, Vice President, Mangalore Jesuit Educational Society (Management), Walter Andrade, Principal-in-charge and Dr A M Narahari, Registrar.
“The college respects all religions and sentiments of people”, it said.
Justifying the College management's controversial decision, the release stated: “Only inside the classroom and examination hall the girls have been asked not to wear the burqa in the best academic interest and for maintaining sanctity of the examinations.”
However, the Kannada version of the press release, which also bears the signatures of the above three office-bearers, contains an additional sentence, saying that the students are not allowed to wear “burqa which covers their complete face.”
The release also stressed that the ban was restricted only to classrooms and examination halls and girls can wear burqa on the College campus.
The college, while issuing general regulations for undergraduate courses this year, had laid down a dress code as the first rule saying: “Students must be neatly dressed in accordance with the rule of approved etiquette. Girls are not expected to wear burqa in classrooms and in examination halls. The decision of the Principal is to be accepted.”
It can also be recalled here that College Principal Sewbert D'Silva last year had asked a Muslim girl, who had been selected for the post of Assistant Professor in the College, not to enter the classroom with her head scarf. “I neither had worn burqa, nor covered my face. I had just covered my complete body including head, which bothered him very much” she said.
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