Difficult to Wear Hijab Inside Operation Theatre, Says Medical College Students, Seek Alternate Options – News18

As many as seven female students of Trivandrum medical college have approached the principal seeking permission to wear long sleeve scrub jackets and surgical hoods inside the Operation Theatre. According to the students, it is part of their religious belief they have to cover their heads at all times and it is not possible to wear ‘hijab’ inside OT. Hence, they looked at alternate options.

Trivandrum medical college’s principal, Dr Linnet, who confirmed the same, said, he will call a meeting of surgeons and the infection control team to discuss the possibility of wearing long sleeve jackets inside the OT. The team will have to decide whether this is possible or not, he said.

The principal received the request on June 26. As students, they are now only observers. The principal further explained to the female students that it could be difficult as every time they enter the OT they have to scrub and sterilise their hands up to the elbow and then they can wear the gown. Hence, wearing long sleeves could be a problem. The principal, however, said she will call for a meeting of surgeons and the infection control team to look into the matter.

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Meanwhile, earlier, a controversy erupted in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district after it was alleged that a private school was forcing its students to wear a ‘hijab’. The allegations were levelled after a poster of Ganga Jamuna Higher Secondary School in Damoh showed girls, including Hindu students, were seen wearing headscarves that ‘looked like hijab.’ The state government ordered a probe into the matter. Home Minister Narottam Mishra said that the superintendent of police has been instructed to thoroughly investigate it.