Somaiya School in Mumbai dismissed its principal, Parveen Shaikh, on Tuesday, after initially requesting her resignation due to her engagement with certain pro-Palestine and sympathetic to Hamas tweets.
The school administration sought an explanation from Shaikh on Saturday and announced her termination on Tuesday evening, stating, “The management has terminated Parveen Shaikh’s association with Somaiya Vidyavihar to ensure that our ethos of unity and inclusivity is not compromised.”
Explaining the decision, management members stated, “It has come to our attention that the personal social media activities of Shaikh, who holds a leadership position at The Somaiya School, have been starkly misaligned with the values we cherish.”
“At Somaiya Vidyavihar, we aim to foster an environment where knowledge leads to wisdom and uplifts all members of the community, transcending narrow-mindedness and personal biases. While we strongly support the right to freedom of expression, we recognize that it is not absolute and must be exercised responsibly and respectfully,” the statement added.
Shaikh, who had initially declined to resign, expressed her intention to explore legal options, stating to TOI, “I was surprised to learn about my termination from social media even before receiving an official termination notice from the management. The termination notice is entirely unlawful and based on defamatory accusations against me.”
On April 24, a news portal published an article alleging Shaikh’s “disturbing social media behavior,” accusing her of being a ‘Hamas sympathizer,’ ‘anti-Hindu,’ and a supporter of ‘Islamist Umar Khalid’ based on tweets she had liked on her Twitter account.
Shaikh, who served the school for 12 years with 7 years as the principal, expressed disappointment, stating, “Despite my hard work, dedication, and sincere contribution to the school’s development, the management chose not to support me amidst the vitriolic public defamation campaign against me. Instead, they succumbed to it and took this drastic and unjustified action. This move appears to be politically motivated.”