Varanasi: A Muslim teacher in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi has alleged that a school asked her to leave on her first day teaching for wearing a hijab, days after she claimed to have been facing religious discrimination while job-searching.
“Aaj kal ke daur me nai Muslim teacher ko grow hona bohot mushkil hai. Pata nahi kyun har jagah ye nafrath feli ki apne bacche ko Muslim teacher se anhi padhainge (In today’s times, it is extremely difficult for a new Muslim teacher to grow professionally. I don’t know why, but everywhere you go this hatred has spread),” Samreen Bano said in an Instagram video.
She claimed that people will not have their children taught by a Muslim teacher. “No matter where you go, whether to give a demo lesson or to sit for an interview, you are turned away simply because you are a Muslim,” Bano said.
According to Bano, the children are so indoctrinated that they begin maintaining a distance from Muslim teachers. “Unke mann mein Muslim teacher ke liye darr hai. Dheere dheere unko handle karna mushkil hojata hai (Their minds have been filled with these prejudices and fears regarding what Muslim teachers are supposedly like, it gradually becomes difficult to handle them).”
“How is one supposed to handle a child who hates me the very moment I walk into the classroom?” Bano expressed frustration. Adding that students are taught to respect all religions in school, she said, “I myself respect every faith and never ask anyone to change their religion.”
In the video dated April 22, she ended with a gloomy remark, saying that teachers might just become a taboo subject as they are being hired solely based on their religion.
Fourteen days later, on Saturday, May 9, Bano uploaded a video on Instagram, claiming that Buddha Public School in Latho, Varanasi, allegedly asked her to leave or remove her hijab if she wanted to continue teaching.
She said the school never mentioned such stipulations during her interview. However, on her first day of school, the principal reportedly raised objections against her hijab. She said the school has violated religious freedom guaranteed under Articles 25 and 19 of the Indian Constitution.
“This is total propaganda against Muslims. The director has a problem with my hijab, when she herself does pooja in the morning,” she said.
Bano also shared a short clip where a member of the school management was heard asking her to leave as the regulations were not “suiting her.”
When she argued that other teachers are also expressing their faith by wearing sindoor and mangalsutra, the management said, “It is about equality. Aap jaaye please. Sab log ek jaise nai hote hai. Jaha aapko suit karta hai waha aap jaaye. Aapjo nahi suit karta hai toh jaaye aap (Please, go. Not everyone is the same. Go wherever suits you. If it doesn’t suit you, then just go).”
