Tens of Iranian students staged a protest outside the Indian embassy in Tehran to protest a ban on hijab in colleges in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

The students also issued a statement calling on the Iranian authorities to take measures against the new law by the Indian government.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which runs the governments in Karnataka as well as control the national government, has for decades campaigned for the application of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which some minorities believe would be tantamount to the imposition of Hindu laws.

The Iranian students who participated in the state-sponsored rally described the new hijab restrictions as discriminatory against Muslims and called it a violation of the basic human right to freedom of clothing. However, it is decades that the Islamic Republic has imposed its compulsory hijab rules and anyone who dares to protest will face persecution or heavy-handed jail terms.

Choosing which clothes to wear is an important part of expression as confirmed under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

More than four decades after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, there is still much resistance to the prescribed standards of hijab promoted by the state, which many women refuse to accept even at the cost of being arrested, fined or even lashed.