As expected , the verdict on the hijab row by the karnataka high court has been received by both the groups as per their stated stands. And sure enough the 'aggrieved' girls have declared they would approach supreme court for justice!
Seeing all these one or two basic questions come to my mind. How long the muslim girls have been using the hijab while out of their homes? Have they checked with their mothers or grandmothers whether they used to wear this in their younger ages? This will clearly show that the practice has been introduced quite recently by the religious fundamentalists and the students are playing into their hands. I remember , during my school or college days around 50 years ago the muslim girly used to cover theri hair only with a small piece of cloth called thattam. Covering the entire body except eyes is a recent phenomenon i feel. Hence the stand of the girls that it is their religious and fundamental right cannot be accepted .
Second question is how many of these girls willingly use the hijab and if compulsion from home or the religious leaders is not there, would they be using it? While in service i used to see one girl employed by the outsourced agency working at the office coming to the office wearing a burkha and removing the same once in office. She use to wear the salwar kameez during the working time and used to put the burkha back while returning home . Doesn't it clearly show that she was wearing it just to please others ?
More important question is who is funding the girls in their fight in high court and supreme court . I am sure they will have to pay through their nose to the advocates, unless the advocates offer free service.
In kerala the educational institutions rum by muslim educational society has long back barred the girls from coming to the institutions wearing burkhas and it has been accepted by all without any protest.
In view of the above i would request the agitating girls and whoever support them to see reason and climb down from the adamant stand to ensure a peaceful atmosphere in the campuses .
I have similar views Unni. During my schooling days (year over 50 years ago) in Bandra, Bombay (now Mumbai), we were staying in a Cosmopolitan area. In our building and schools, we had Christians (RC, Protestants etc), Muslims (Sunnis, Bohras, Khojas etc), Parsis, Hindus etc... I don't recall any of the children wearing any different kind of attire (except, perhaps on some festival days). Girls wearing hijab / burqa was unheard of. So also, I hadn't seen boys with laced skull caps. Yes, the attire would be different depending upon the affluence or otherwise, of the family they belonged to. There were 3 Convent schools and over 4 Missionary schools where all studied (the less affluent went to the Municipal School). No Hijab, no burqa, no lace skull caps. All wore the respective school uniforms. In fact, there was no obvious display of one's religious identity. In fact I didn't know till about 15-20 years back that Hijab was an attire to cover the face (Burqa, of course was worn by some of the more orthodox women - not girls).
ReplyDeleteAnother observation - after the '84 Sikh pogrom, a few of my Sikh friends chopped of their hair so as to avoid being identified as 'Sardars'. However, as the effects of the 92-93 riots wore off, a lot of Muslims started displaying their identity - growing a loose beard, wearing a skull cap etc... in other words wearing their religion on their sleeve - and now this sudden insistence of Hijab in class rooms of Educational Institutions.