Bantwal: Ayesha Ashmin is taking her battle to the government. The young Muslim girl, a first year student of SVS College in Bantwal, is fighting for her right to wear a headscarf to class.
She did get sympathy from the District Commissioner, but no assurances.
The college remains firm that this is no place for religious statements.
"We admire Ayesha's rebellious spirit; we just wish it had been used for nation building instead," said Ganesh Prabhu, Correspondent of the SVS College.
In Ayesha's college, classes continue without her. Other Muslim girl students did not want to talk on camera, but said off the camera that they were saddened by the reasons for Ayesha's departure and thought of leaving the college themselves. Some wanted to wear a scarf in class and had not told their families they needed to remove them.
But other students clearly have been exerting pressure and the management has listened to them.
"They look different from the others when they wear burkhas. You should not display religion," said one of the students.
The management and even many other students say that rules are rules and Ayesha needed to follow them. But this has happened in a district that has shown growing communalism in recent years, and is seen as disturbing.