#HijabRow: British MP Naz Shah demands review of trade deal with India

British parliamentarian Naz Shah has said that the hijab ban in Indian schools is a violation of article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adding that more than 250 million Muslims are under attack under BJP-ruled India

Talking exclusively to ARY News, Naz Shah said that the real face of fascist India under BJP rule has been unmasked.  She said that the recent acts of regression by the Modi government moved her to write to the British Foreign Secretary Liz truss and urged him to clarify UK’s stance on the hijab ban in Indian schools.

In the letter, Naz wrote that the Hindu nationalists under Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) rule are trying to hide their Islamophobia and discriminatory policies by terming it an ” issue of school uniform”.

She also informed the Secretary of State about the Indian courts’ interim decision to sustain the hijab ban until the courts’ final verdict, practically asking Muslim girls to choose between their faith and education.

“However, this is not just an issue of the hijab, but a further extension of the regressive and hard-line extremist alienation of the Muslim in India by RSS and BJP.”

Shah also quoted renowned American linguist and intellectual Naom Chomsky who had said that the Modi government is systematically dismantling Indian secular democracy.

Naz demanded that it should be made clear to the Indian government that the UK has a rights-centred trade policy, and they will have to revisit Indo-UK trade if the suppression of minorities in India is not brought to a halt.  She concluded by urging the Secretary of State to stand with the liberal and pro-democracy voices of India and against the hijab ban in Indian schools.

Protests had broken out throughout India last week after some students were refused entry to their college after they fell afoul of the 5 February order by Modi’s government to ban hijab.