Indian women's college run by Muslim organization bans jeans, short tops & leggings

According to Times of India, a women’s collage run by a Muslim organization in the Indian state of Kerala has decided to introduce uniforms for its students from this academic year which also gives the go-by to the ‘naqab’ for Muslim students.

The Muslim Educational Society (MES) at Nadakkavu in Kozhikode has directed students to wear shalwar, churidar bottom, and an overcoat. Furthermore, Muslim students have been permitted to wear a dark grey ‘mafta’ or head scarf.

College Principal Prof B Seethalakshmi said that the decision to have a dress code came after some students were seen coming to college wearing tight jeans, short tops and leggings.

“We cannot allow this,” she added.

Instead of a shawl, the students will have to wear an overcoat, she said, adding that 50 per cent of the students do favour uniforms.

The parents of the students, nearly 40 per cent of whom come from very poor families, have lauded the college’s decision to introduce the uniform.

Sources quoted MES state President Fasal Gaffoor as saying that once the uniform is introduced, it is applicable to all.

Gaffoor had last year courted a controversy when he said that the ‘Naqab’, or veil, used by Muslim women to cover their faces, is “un-Islamic”.

The ‘Naqab’, part of the ‘purdah’, was a western import and its prolonged use blocks sunlight, resulting in Vitamin D deficiency in many Muslim women, he had said.