Avay Shukla: Give them back their hijab and education
Anyone who thinks that the anti-hijab campaign is about discipline and dress code needs to have his or her head examined. And anyone who thinks it's about the emancipation of Muslim women needs to have a frontal lobotomy without any further loss of time. For it's clear as crystal that this is just the latest provocation in the right wing tool-kit for the de-identification of the Muslim community- to deprive them of their visible symbols, rituals and practices that define their identity. The attack on the hijab, remember, has been preceded by the various jihads ( love, covid, spitting), and contrived agitations against public Namaz, abattoirs and beef, non-vegetarian food stalls, alleged conversions, birth rates, immigration of "termites" and of course the eternal mandir-masjid binary.
As usual, our Prime
Minister has not spoken on the subject. Is it because he realises the pathetic
ironies implicit in this latest demonstration of double-speak? That to deprive
young girls of education while preaching Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao is
nothing but chicanery of the highest order? That victimising this most
vulnerable section of society while proclaiming empathy for them via the triple
talaq law is not just a contradiction but an unscrupulous betrayal?
Javed Anand: What is at stake in the hijab issue
The hijab is not so
much about religion as it is about a woman's modesty and choice, like the
ghunghat or the dupatta. It has been worn by generations of girls without
stirring up dormant religious fervour in society. It has quietly merged with
school uniforms without inviting any undue attention, just like the Sikh turban
has with army and police uniforms. It is permitted in the Central govt's own
Kendriya Vidyalaya's dress code which prescribes it in so many words:
"scarf with red hemmings for Muslim girls, matching with the lower."
And that makes eminent sense to any one but a lumpen- let the head scarf match
the colour of the uniform and become a part of it, rather than what it is
falsely being made out to be- a defiance of the uniform.
One would have expected
the courts to appreciate this simple truth and reality. Sadly, the Karnataka
High Court has not; in its quest for a deeper constitutional meaning and
interpretation of the hijab it has only strengthened the position of the
Hindutva fundamentalists. Its interim order of 11th February 2022 prohibiting
the wearing of any religious dress- hijab or saffron scarf- is unfortunate, and
misconceived on many counts, as per my humble opinion. It has only made a bad
situation worse.
Before this particular
order, many colleges were permitting the hijab in classrooms, even after the
campaign against it was started in the first week of January. Now, according to
an NDTV report of 16th February, even they have stopped it, fearing charges of
contempt of court ! The order has strengthened the hands of a state govt. which
has made Karnataka the new laboratory of Hindutva, and vigilantes for whom such
agitations are bread and butter, for they can now legitimately piggy- back on
this order to do what they wanted to do in the first place. Their ulterior
motive has now acquired judicial legitimacy, till the final order comes, only
the good Lord knows when.
The interim order also
ignores a basic principle of jurisprudence- that unequals cannot be treated as
equals in law. It accords the same status to the saffron scarf as to the hijab,
which is unjustified: the hijab has been a standard and traditional dress for
Muslim girls for centuries and they have been wearing it for decades, including
in educational institutions and in public. It has been practically de rigueur
for them, whether out of religious dictat or modesty or sense of safety is
irrelevant. The wide use of the saffron scarf outside of religious institutions
or occasions, on the other hand, is a recent innovation as an assertion of
Hindu identity, it is not intrinsic wear for members of the community, and
certainly not in schools or colleges. By treating both on par, the court has
diminished one and elevated the other, considering them equal in tradition and
usage, which cannot be correct.
Equally disappointing is the court's decision to hold that the hijab is a religious accessory, and to therefore examine in depth whether it is an essential part of Islam. The whole issue has now been given a constitutional dimension, and will be examined as such. The last time this happened, in the Ram Janambhoomi case, it took more than fifty years for a verdict to be delivered. The same time frame is likely in this case, and in the meantime the status quo ( as directed by the interim order of the court) will mean that Muslim girls can no longer wear the hijab in schools and colleges. This is patently unfair as the enforced status quo suits the anti- hijabists and the state govt.
The hijab is a form of dress, not a
religious talisman, just like the salwar kameez or the sari or the ghaghra-
why, in God's name, should Muslim girls be prevented from wearing it ? By
imparting a religious hue to the issue the court is falling into the trap set
by the right wing fanatics who would like nothing better than everything to be
viewed through a religious prism. Ironically, by doing so the court is also
pushing these young Muslim girls into the embrace of the Islamic
fundamentalists, adding more grist to their " Islam is in danger"
mill. Surely, our judges could not be blind to this?
Quite often we miss
the woods for the trees, and get entangled in undergrowth of no consequence. It
must be remembered that the statue of the Goddess Justitia, which is the
universal symbol of justice, holds a sword, not a scalpel. It is time our
judges used the former, to slash through the thicket of obfuscations,
jabberwocky, fabrications, mendacity and duplicity which comprise the tool-kit
to harass minorities today, rather than using the ineffective scalpel to probe
for a chimera that exists nowhere but in the politics of a certain party. Give
them back their hijab, their education and their sense of dignity.
http://avayshukla.blogspot.
Javed Anand: What is at stake in the
hijab issue
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Javed
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Reflections of an American living in India
