At Jadavpur University, hundreds of students protested on Friday the torment a student in Karnataka faced because she wore a hijab to college.

Among the protesters were two friends, Ayesha Akhtar and Urwah Jawaid. Ayesha wears a hijab but Urwah doesn’t. They told The Telegraph that they joined the protest to “firmly oppose the forces that seek to dictate what a woman should wear”.

Ayesha Akhtar, Park Circus

Third-year student of mathematics (honours)

I started wearing hijab after my first year in college. I felt good about it. I read about it and understood the purpose…. Now, it's a part of my identity. No one forced it on me. So I feel no one has the right to take it away from me. It's about me. The way I dress up should solely be my decision.

It should be like any other piece of clothing. Just like no one else can decide whether I wear a skirt or a salwar-kameez, they should have no business to do with my hijab.

I am at the protest today to voice my opinion about the injustice being perpetrated in institutes in Karnataka.

I used to visit Park Circus Maidan to protest the discriminatory citizenship law and the NRC. Students were in the forefront of that protest.

The time has come again for campuses to stand up to these forces that don’t hesitate to send a pack of boys after a woman exercising her right.

Urwah Jawaid, from Srinagar in Kashmir

Second-year student of computer science and engineering in Calcutta

The hijab is more an umbrella term for me. It is not about a head covering. It is about being genuinely good, inside out.

I don't cover my head yet but one day I might. Right now, I feel like I won't be able to carry it and end up disrespecting what it stands for righteousness.

If I start wearing a hijab in the future, it will be out of my own choice and I will be the happiest. It is no one else's business because it is about me and my faith. It is not something a third person can intervene in. You can’t be the judge of how I express myself.

I am at the protest because we need to raise our voice against what's happening in the country.

A person wearing a head covering by her own choice is hurting no one. That person is not outraging anyone's liberty. She has the right to be in her place of education.

It is extremely sad to see students fight among themselves on the basis of religion. Students should never be divided.

Our students are going in a very communal and extreme direction and it pains me to see this sorry state. The campuses must rise in revolt to prevent this and that’s why I am here today.