The choice between the right to education and allowing girls to wear a headscarf with their uniforms is a no-brainer. The girls must be allowed their fundamental right to expression, privacy, and autonomy.
There is no contradiction. The fundamental point in both countries is a woman’s right to choose.
In Iran, the extraordinary sight of women dancing, singing, and chanting as they toss their headscarves, or hijabs, into bonfires. In India, the extraordinary sight of girls waiting to be admitted into their classrooms as they sit in silent protest outside in their hijabs. Commentators on social media have pointed to the seeming discrepancy between the feminist argument that supports the right to take off the hijab by women in Iran while rooting for the right to wear it by school girls in India.