By Hasan Akram

A hijabi woman has resigned as the principal of VIVA College of Law in Maharashtra’s Virar city. She says she was facing harassment for wearing hijab in the campus.

“For a few days, I feel uncomfortable as the atmosphere around me has been made  unharmonious and suffocating,” Dr Battull Hammid said in her resignation letter.

She told Muslim Mirror that she joined the college in July 2019 and everything was alright in the last two years.

However, people in the management allegedly started targeting her after the hijab controversy erupted in Karnataka.

One day, some members of the Dawoodi Bohra community, which Ms Hammid also belongs to, came to her office to inquire about admissions. After that, she was accused of indulging in propagation of her religion on the campus.

“They celebrate Haldi Cum Cum and [organise recitation of] Saraswati Vandana on the campus. Are these not religious activities? Just few people came to meet me, gave respect to me and it became an issue for them [members of the management committee],” Ms Hammid said.

In the wake of growing harassment, she had started feeling that the college administration will fire her for one reason or another. So, in a bid to not let that happen, she tendered her resignation. “I resigned to save my dignity and culture,” she said.

She said her work has always been admired by the management committee, teaching and non-teaching staff and students as well. As a principal of the college, she has done commendable work. “We got the approval for establishment of a new division of L.L.B 3 year course, setting up B.A.LL.B 5 year course and recently, an inspection was done [by concerned officials] on our application to seek approval for setting up the LL.M programme,” she said.