Being under intense fire for enacting a draconian move asking the girl students to compulsorily wear hijab, AB Hannan, the school principal in Assam’s Karimganj has now taken a u-turn on his hijab order. The school has withdrawn its decision of making hijab mandatory for the girl students and Hannan has issued an apologetic note for hurting the sentiments of the people with his Facebook post.

In the Facebook post with grammatical errors, he had written, “to protect my students from evil eyes and as a part of the best personality of girls today I made compulsory wearing Hijab for my all girl students at East Point Public School, Karimganj”. The school principal, AB Hannan had defended the medieval practice of enforcing hijabs for girl students saying that it will protect the girls from ‘evil eyes’. Hannan stated that the ill-mannered boys in the neighbourhood cast an evil glance on the girls studying in the school and to protect the girls from such miscreants he had taken the decision of making it mandatory for them to wear hijabs.

His Facebook post stirred a furore as many on social media censured him, terming the move as narrow-minded act. Responding to the flak that Hannan’s post attracted on the social media, school management convened an urgent meeting in which the decision of enforcing hijab for girl students was immediately withdrawn. Hannan was also directed by the school management to immediately delete his social media post and issue a formal apology instead.

Hannan has deleted his social media post and posted a new one in Bengali which says-“The school administration has not given its approval on the decision to enforce Hijab so it remains optional as it was. Since my earlier post on social media about making Hijab compulsory had hurt many people, I am deleting now with an apology. Jai Hind.”

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While speaking to a local news agency Barak Bulletin, Hannan expressed his remorse and apology over the decision announced by him earlier. He said that he felt he is taking the right step to stop harassment of the girls in his school. He also added that at present all students in the school are Muslim, and he had said while announcing the ruile that if in future non-Muslim students join the school, he would look at the decision. However, after outrage over the decision, he admitted that he was wrong and tendered his apology for hurting the sentiments of his well-wishers who were anguished by his decision.