LAHORE: Justice Ijazul Ahsan of Lahore High Court on Tuesday sought replies from the Higher Education Commission and the administration of Government College University for declining admission to a female student who refused to unveil her face before male teachers during an interview.
The LHC judge sought replies from the two respondents till September 10. Petitioner Mehreen Shafaq approached the court submitting that she had applied for admission in BA Applied Management Sciences course and passed the written examination.
The petitioner’s counsel Barrister Sajeel Shaharyar said that during the interview Management Science Department Director Najaf Yawar and interview committee member Assistant Professor Immad Upal asked the petitioner to unveil her face for identification purposes.
The counsel said that the petitioner refused to do the same. He said that the petitioner had a genuine claim that since she was wearing a veil she could not show her face to Na Mahram (unrelated) men under the religious edicts. He said that Mehreen requested that let the committee coordinator
Asma identify her at a separate place but Najaf was unimpressed and refused the admission to petitioner. He said that the director’s point of view was that the veiled students were already creating problems in the campus and hence the petitioner should not be given admission.
He said that under the constitution every citizen is free to wear any dress with certain limits and refusing to grant admission on the sole ground of wearing a veil was unjust and unconstitutional. He requested the court to declare the admission committee’s decision as illegal and issue directions for granting the admission to the petitioner.
These veiled women also need to understand and respect the rulings of a law and country. Just because their identification is required does not suggest the man fancies her. You can’t rightfully enter institutions like banks with your faces covered. Naqab is a pre-Islamic Byzantine phenomena that has nothing to do with Islamic teachings. Allah only askes believing women to cover up their modesty, in Pakistan most illiterate women have no idea of the teachings of Islam.