Bengaluru: Amid all the brouhaha over wearing Hijab in Karnataka educational institutions, a college girl who wears hijab to college won a record number of gold medals at the 21st convocation ceremony of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU).

22-year-old Bushra Mateen became the first student of VTU to receive 16 gold medals. Earlier, a BE civil student of Sahyadri College of Engineering, Mangaluru held the record of winning the biggest gold medal haul - 13 in total.

Bushra is a civil engineering graduate of SLN College of Engineering in Raichur. She stood first in the civil engineering stream by scoring an aggregate cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 9.73.

The golden girl got a rousing reception from the august gathering as she went up the dais to receive her medals from Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Governor Thawarchand Gehlot and Higher Education Minister CN Ashwath Narayan.

She said she drew inspiration from her father Zaheeruddin who is a junior engineer. Though her father wanted to see her daughter pursue medicine, he supported her decision when she opted for civil engineering.

As the controversy over hijab was still on, a hijab-wearing girl winning the biggest medal haul got bouquets from netizens on social media. Take a look at some of the praises below.

Congratulated & felicitated a bright student from Raichur Bushra Mateen for getting 16 gold medals in B.E. Civil Engineering.

This is a great achievement in the history of Kalyana Karnataka. pic.twitter.com/bHtt07uRpt
— N.S Boseraju (@NsBoseraju) March 17, 2022

Proud moment for the Raichurians.
Bushra Mateen receiving 16 Gold Medals at VTU...

Congratulations to Bushra Mateen and her family members.#16GoldMedalist #BushraMateen #RaichurMuslim #HijabiGirl pic.twitter.com/h4YUAHw18a
— Faithful Indian 🇮🇳 (@faithfulindian8) March 12, 2022

What an achievement and what a time!! True motivation for all hijabi girls pursuing academic excellence. #BushraMateen #WomensDay2022 #IndianSocialForum
— $|_||-|/\||_ (@Suhail__Abbas) March 8, 2022

#karnataka #GoldenGirl #BushraMateen who won 16 #GoldMedals breaking all the previous records of #VTU - Exclusive focus on her success
Golden Hijabi Girl Bushra Mateen,a student of #SLN College, #BE Civil (VTU), #Raichur has set a new record pic.twitter.com/UgmgV2HQoz
— Mohd Ismail (@MohdIsm786678) March 18, 2022

ये हैं कर्नाटक की "बुश़रा मतीन" जिन्होंने "हिजाब" में रहकर 16 गोल्ड मेडल जीतकर यूनिवर्सिटी की तारीख़ में एक नया रिकॉर्ड कायम किया है।
हिजाब हमारी तालीम की राह में ना रुकावट बना है और न ही बनेगा। #BushraMateen #HijabisOurRight pic.twitter.com/BsKfJ5kN4N
— ندا شاہین Nida Shaheen (@_nid11) March 20, 2022