Karnataka hijab row: Judge refers issue to larger bench

An Indian state has shut high schools and colleges for three days, after a row over Muslim women wearing headscarves in the classroom that has gained international attention.

The government of Karnataka state took the decision after protests by students over the hijab escalated into violence, reports BBC.

On Wednesday, a judge at the state's high court referred petitions challenging the ban to a larger panel.

Protests have now spread across the country.

Hundreds of people demonstrated against the ban in Kolkata and Chennai, two of India's largest cities, and in Hyderabad. And the Pakistani government summoned the Indian ambassador to formally convey its concern.

The decision to close the schools and colleges in the southern Indian state came after protests by six teenage students at a government-run college over wearing hijabs spread to other colleges.

Several Hindu students then turned up wearing saffron shawls - the colour seen as a Hindu symbol - to protest against Muslim women wearing hijabs.

On Tuesday, Nobel Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai, who was 15 when she survived an attack by the Taliban in Pakistan for speaking up for the right of girls to be educated, weighed in. She called on India's leaders to do something to "stop the marginalisation of Muslim women".

"Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying," the 24-year-old activist tweeted. "Objectification of women persists - for wearing less or more."

In India, the stand-off has increased fear and anger among minority Muslims, who say the country's constitution grants them the freedom to wear what they want.

Viral videos show a Muslim woman being heckled by a mob of young men shouting slogans, and heated arguments between students wearing hijabs and saffron shawls.

How did the row begin?

The issue began gaining attention when the students at the pre-university college - equivalent to a high school - in Karnataka's Udupi district began protesting over the hijab ban.

Udupi is one of three districts in Karnataka's communally sensitive coastal region - a stronghold of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).