By FutureLaw Desk

The High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh will dispose of a rule on ensuring female students’ right to wear burka in schools on Thursday (March 14), as reported by Dhaka Tribune.

Update: Hearing of the Writ Petition is adjourned for 1 month.

The Division Bench of Justice Moeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal will hear arguments from the state’s attorneys on that day and rule on the writ petition.

This writ petition (WP No. 544/2019) was filed on January 17 on behalf of Allama Md Mahbub Alam (editor of Daily Al Ehsan and Al Bayinat) and Allama Abur Khayer Md Azizullah (khatib of Taj Jama Mosque in Dhaka).

Responding to the incidents of harassment of schoolgirls who wore burkas to classes, this writ petition was filed to seek an order on effective measures to ensure the right of female students to wear burkas in the classroom, the lawyers of the petitioners stated.

The petition claimed that a teacher of Chittagong city’s Maijpara Mahmudunnabi Chowdhury High School scolded a student and threw her out of the class for wearing burkha. The next day the headmaster insulted the girl’s mother when she went to lodge an appeal, it said.

The writ petition the petitioners are aggrieved by the harassment of female students over wearing burkha.

Aritcle 41 of the constitution guarantees the right of all citizens to accept and observe any religion, and therefore preventing students from wearing the burkha infringes on their constitutional right, the writ said.