Hijab or No Hijab? What’s The Right Way to Be and Why?
Recently, women from around the world, women on social media were seen making posts and tweeting with hashtags Hijab Day and No Hijab Day. In Karnataka, though, most of us would be aware of recent events that made it to the news. There are voices supporting Muslim women wearing a hijab, and there are voices strongly against Muslim women wearing a hijab. A sad and funny thing that one can notice is how many of these ‘opinions’ on whether the hijab and burqa are to be accepted or not come from men. What’s going on?
“The hijab controversy” which began with six girls being dismissed from classes in a government PU College in Udupi because they wore the hijab is seen happening in many more educational institutions in Karnataka. When the students fought for their rights to wear hijab to the college, like they’ve been doing for these many years, College Development Committee Vice President Yashpal Suvarna said, “The college has its own rules, regulations and disciplinary procedures. The uniform was introduced to offer an egalitarian approach to education.” He also added, “They can attend classes if they are willing to follow the rules of the college. If they are not willing to follow the rules, they can find some other college to get an education.”
Following another such event, recently, Shri Sam Sena Chief, Pramod Muthalik, said, “Are you making India, a Pakistan or an Afghanistan? If you demand a burqa or a hijab, you can go to Pakistan.” “Students who are insisting on wearing a hijab should be issued transfer certificates and be kicked out. This mindset is dangerous, he maintained.”
As a feminist, a professional, and a woman, I have participated in discussions in women’s groups and feminists’ groups, and have heard Muslim women sharing their perspectives on the hijab for years. So what’s the right, acceptable, progressive way to dress? I think many of the opinions I have heard are valid in their own ways. Let me share a few.
Some of the women who have been against wearing a burqa or hijab say that it is symbolic of oppression, that it is forced on Muslim women by Muslim men. Patriarchy anywhere is unacceptable, and as feminists and strong women, they refuse to wear the hijab.
Some Muslim women say that when they have never worn the burqa or hijab from their childhood, in their own homes, why need they suddenly start wearing the hijab after they get married? There are also Muslim women who see marriage as a means of escaping patriarchy and breaking the confines of conservative, pressing values of their family members, to live freely at least after getting married, wanting to be mothers who support individual freedom. These women leave the hijab behind as they leave their families and go live with their partners.
An interesting take that I must mention was when I heard a Muslim woman assertively saying, “no, I am not non-religious, I am very much religious, but I think spirituality is something one should feel inside, within themselves. Why should I advertise it outside?”
“Growing up as a child in an Islamic country, I had to cover myself from the age of 6 to have the right to go to school, while boys didn’t have to adapt. This was my first confrontation with discrimination by Sharia. #NoHijabDay”, a Muslim woman tweeted.
“Hijab can not be an identity, Hijab can’t be freedom. Hijab is just a matter what has imposed on women by men and religion. A hijab-free girl from Bangladesh”, tweeted another young girl from Bangladesh.
Now, there are Muslim women who wear the hijab saying they want to do so, that it is their choice, and they love and take pride in wearing the hijab because it makes them feel true to their values or feminine or both, irrespective of what men in their families say.
“I Won’t romanticize hijab,not anymore at least. The Hijab is a struggle and a duty and a lot of days I don’t feel like putting it on but I still do for my creator. This is where I’m at, But happy hijab day I guess. #HijabDay” tweeted a Muslim woman.
“Okay, how uneducated, threatened and insecure do you have to be to be scared of a handful of hijabi girls? And since when did school authorities start disobeying the Constitution so brazenly with no fear of court? #Hijabismyright” tweeted another Indian Muslim woman.
With so many different takes on the hijab, how do you know whom to side with? What does this remind me of? Do similar things not happen in the Hindu families in India?
Don’t Hindu women change their dressing styles as they grow up, educate themselves, as they start taking their career and personal freedom more seriously? Yes, I personally know many Hindu women who refuse to wear the sindhoor or Kumkum or the toe ring or even the mangal sutra. There are Hindu men who support this, calling this a welcome change, there are Hindu men against this, calling it “radical, western feminism”, and I must mention, there are Hindu men who support all this *only* on paper and on social media, but expect their own partners to stick to conservative values.
I also have Hindu women friends who either for religious reasons for as personal choice love to wear the Kumkum, the toe ring, the mangal sutra, and symbols of religion in Hinduism for women. It’s a personal choice. Some women who love flaunting their sarees, accessories, along with one or more of these symbols, be they religious or not, prefer to do so because they like it.
In my own family, my dad always told my mother to be herself, that she can dress up in whatever way she wants, she needs to go out and explore, learn through studies and work, do whatever she pleases, and live by her preferences. And she still chose to abide by traditional values, not slightly drifting away from her religious beliefs all her life. What could dad say? What should have dad said?
To conclude, what then is the right choice? First of all, let’s start with the question, would Hindu men like it if Muslim men or Christian men compelled Hindu women to dress up in a certain way? No, you won’t, you’d hate it and strongly oppose such words. If men from other religions can’t control women of your religion, how can you (Hindu men) control women practising a different religion? Don’t you think that’s blatantly biased?
Next, regarding all the men who are vocally sharing their ‘opinions’ on the hijab (and Kumkum and Sindhoor), be you Muslim or Hindu, be you religious or not, do you realise that these are all symbols associated with women? Shouldn’t women be the ones making the choice, whether to stick to it or not practice it? Do we women ever compel you on what you should wear and how you should dress? Isn’t imaging that happening hilarious? Guess what? This is what’s called control — misuse of male privilege in a gender inequal society. Who are you (men) to tell women what to wear and what not?
Next, among feminists also you see different practices — some are religious, some are not, some dress the traditional way, and some others don’t, so? Feminism is about women fighting for *their* freedom and *their own* empowerment, so if you ask a feminist, we’d say, what an individual does with their body, clothes, work, and life is *their own business*, not yours.
If the Sindhoor can’t be associated with some outrageous Hindu man murdering someone, how can the Hijab be associated with terrorism? If the hijab is a symbol of oppression, so are the mangal sutra and the toe ring.
Let women be, that’s it, that’s the tweet!
(Originally written on 3rd February 2022)
