Raheeba Abdurehim, a 2018 MBA graduate in mass communications at Pondicherry University, was to have received a gold medal at ceremony.
However, minutes after President Ram Nath Kovind arrived at the Jawaharlal Nehru Auditorium in the university, Abdurehim said she was asked to go outside. “They asked me to come outside, and automatically I knew why, and what was the reason they wanted me to come outside.”
After this, she was not allowed back inside the venue until Kovind had left. “So as a protest against what is happening against every student in India, right now – I am rejecting the gold medal,” said Abdurehim.
As the video shows, Abdurehim had arrived at the event wearing a hijab. According to The Times of India, Abdurehim recounted that the students who asked why she was taken away received the answer: “Maybe, she is wearing her scarf in a different way.”
However, she was not given any clear reason for the incident by authorities.
Almost in tears, Abdurehim said, “This is an insult for me. It’s an insult against every Indian who is fighting against what is happening right now. I have rejected my gold medal, because I am an educated person and I do not want a gold medal to tell me what to do, and this is my protest. ”
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