ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Muslim students suspended for attending youth festival

Two Muslims girls in Kerala have been banned from attending school for three months by religious authorities for participating in a youth festival held in October 1998.

Oufeen Ahmed (14) and Safa Mariam (12), daughters of K Hamed Koya, who works for the Madhyamam daily paper in Kozhikode, incurred the wrath of the Ihya-ul-ulum madrassa committee at Olavanna for participating in the youth festival at the Payyanakkal government vocational higher secondary school.

In a statement, Koya alleged that madrassa (religious school) committee members barred his daughters from entering classrooms. When questioned they said the students should tender a written apology for participating in the festival, and an assurance not to repeat it in future.

The students refused to do so without a written demand from the madrassa secretary, he said.

Following the ban, the girls have also been denied permission to appear for the madrassa's annual examination.

Koya has now issued legal notices to the madrassa committee secretary and headmaster.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report