Kashmiri students with beard expelled from Karnataka college

ISLAMABAD: Four Kashmiri students studying at a Benguluru college in the Indian state of Karnataka have been barred from attending their nursing classes for growing beard.

According to Kashmir Media Service, the students, three from the first year B.Sc (Nursing) and one from second-year faced, the discrimination after Priyadarshini joined the college — the Adarsh College of Nursing in Mariyappana, Mallathahalli as the new principal nearly a month ago.

Media reports said the principal has cited ‘hygiene’, to bar the students from taking their classes. “The students were told by the principal that if they fail to shave off their beard, their internal marks would be affected and they could face expulsion,” the reports claimed.

“For the last one week, we are being sent out of class on instructions from the principal for not shaving our beards. The management was fine with our beards when we got our admission at the college. All of a sudden, the principal, who joined just 20 days ago, asked us to shave our beards and barred us from attending classes. The beards are part of our religion and I don’t understand why it should bother the principal. Even on Wednesday, we could attend only two classes and when the principal got to know of it, she asked the lecturers to send us out,” the students told the media.

Justifying her decision, the college principal told the media that there was a need for students to be ‘disciplined and maintain hygiene’.