Hijab Protests in Iran Pak & India:Lalit K Kaul
“Mera Jism Meri
Marzi”- Pakistani Girls
Iranian Women
revolt against Hijab & Echoes in Banaras, India
Lalit K Kaul
And we have the SC of India hearing
a petition on allowing Hijab in educational institutions founded on the claim
that is a part of Islamic faith. The SC bench observed that “there is this
Muslim woman pilot who flies planes across countries, has to be dropped to
airport by her husband as that country’s Sharia law bars women from driving
cars”. The Muslim religious leaders including those who filed the said petition
ought to know that the Quranic dictate is “women are to be confined to the four
walls of the house and if, in an unavoidable situation, they must step out of
their fortified residences then they should be accompanied by their respective
husbands, if married and by their respective fathers/brothers/some reliable
family acquaintance, if unmarried.” Obviously this dictate should be inviolable
as it is Quranic dictate and therefore, in keeping with it, no girl can be in a
school because she can’t be escorted in a class room; likewise, no woman can be
in a job or be an entrepreneur or a sportsperson because it’s impossible to
have escort in such public engagements. It’s a different matter though that Ms.
Sania Mirza, pride of India, was advised to play lawn tennis while being fully
clad!! She chose not to play in her native city.
This pilot’s husband drops her at
the airport; thereafter she flies around the Globe- ascending and descending at
various airports and spending nights in hotels; so what does the husband do!
May be that he can arrange for an escort at every airport, but what about the
cockpit! Can it become more ridiculous than this act of her husband dropping
her at the airport of the city she resides in?
To all those who swear by the Holy
Quran, Sharia and invoke Allah; there are some questions that they need to
answer before they choose to make life miserable/unlivable for girls/women and
the Questions are:
1. Do they shun interest on their
monies/deposits in the banks?
2. Do they shun alcohol?
3. Do their children shun modern
education by not going to schools/colleges/universities?
4. Do they shun photography, paintings
and making of family videos?
5. Do they shun IDs with their
photograph affixed to it?
6. Do they shun music- vocal and
instrumental?
Simple answer is No. Therefore,
Are such Moulvis, Maulanas and
Muftis including likes of Asaddudin Owasis, et al- who appear before a camera
and have bank accounts and their children acquiring modern education and
learning music- Muslims? Again, the simple answer is: they are not Muslims. So,
if the thekedars of Islam are found violating Islamic dictates, why insist only
on Hijab?
“Mera Jism Meri Marzi”
Isn’t that
revolutionary! Yes it is for, it directly questions this self arrogated
power/prerogative of Man to decide upon everything about Woman; be it, level of
intellect, her dress code, her limits of freedom insofar as social behavior is
concerned, her likes or dislikes, her aspirations and dreams. The slogan
displayed on huge banners in a public display of woman resolve to free her from
the barricaded iron cage built for her by this Man; on the occasion of
International Day for Women. They were simply asking of this Man: Who are you?
And, asking him to get out of dictating her life to her.
But, filthy minds
can only respond in an uncivilized way. The response from the thekedars of
“morality” was that they classified these young girls’ prostitutes and offered
to supply clients to them and this abhorrent response was televised through
debating channels. It betrayed their mindset that looks at a woman as just a
commodity to be exploited sexually in the bed.
There is nothing
Islamic in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan; it’s on the brink and its problems
have been compounded by Nature’s fury; yet the focus remains on women
enslavement. Here also there is a dichotomy: All that subjugates women is not
for aristocratic Muslim women, like TV anchors; TV and film artists and of
course those belonging to the Establishment, but only for the poor, emaciated
and deprived ones who struggle day in and day out to make a living for mere
survival. So, when the girls from well to do families brought out a rally
flaunting banners “Mera Jism Meri Marzi” it pulled the rug from under the feet
of thekedars of all hues as they feared that it may awaken the oppressed ones
from their deep slumber and challenge their fiefdom; hence the thekedars came
up with an uncivilized response which also betrayed their mindset.
Iranian Women revolt against Hijab
& Echoes in Banaras:
There is nothing Islamic in Islamic
State of Iran. The Iranian revolution of 1979 had raised some hopes in that it
would challenge the hegemony of the USA and her allies in the West and
consequently lead the oppressed nations from the front in bringing them out of
the yoke of erstwhile colonial powers that were now implementing
neo-colonialism.
Sadly, the revolution has turned out
to be a mere exercise of replacing the Shah of Iran by an Ayatollah, while
people continued to be oppressed by the new dispensation. The new ruling elite
followed Western Science and Technology implying that it continued with Western
World View and Culture. The ruling elite realized that it had no alternate
economic and development model to replace the Western one; the political model
chosen was different from Western Democracy and it tended to concentrate power
in a few hands and thereby making people’s opinion irrelevant.
So, in order to make their presence
felt and show a modicum of change from the previous regime, the ruling elite
strictly implemented that part of Sharia which concerned the womenfolk.
Iranian women have been protesting,
over the years, for the restrictions imposed on them, but this time around it
is most vociferous and at a time when Iran’s relation with world powers is not
comfortable at all. What turn this will take only time will tell, but the
protests in Iran have had an interesting and remarkable fall out and that’s
that it has found support among the Muslim women of Banaras.
And why not! The remarkable part of
this support is that it has sprung from not so well to do families and that’s
revolutionary. As mentioned in the aforesaid lines, the thekedars of Islam of
all hues don’t dare touch aristocratic section; the protest in support of
Iranian women from the less privileged section is bound to ring horror bells in
the ears of Muslim religious and political leaders. For, they can see that
their domain of absolute dominance is receding from them if not immediately,
but in time to come; and must be planning a response. Fortunately, it is India
and not Iran and here anybody/ community is free to protest peacefully without
fear of a lathi charge or tear gas shells or bullets. A beginning has been made
and even while it’s yet to spread to other parts of country; the silent consent
of such Muslim women/ girls who have been suffering at the hands of thekedars
is not to be ruled out. The triple talaq is too fresh to fade into oblivion.
The much talked about & yet
non-implementable Sharia:
As hinted in above lines, if Muslims
desire Sharia regime then either they will have to find a hospitable virgin
island somewhere in the seas or in the Space where they can settle down and run
their day to day affairs as per Sharia dictates. In India or in any other country
(including Arab countries) where Western economic model for development is in
vogue; to ask for Sharia is to ask for isolation from modern civilization and
that in itself is incredibly incredulous. Alongside of 21st century
civilization a 7th century Arab civilization cannot co-exist; be it
within the boundaries of a country or when it comes to international affairs.
It was this realization that spurred the Crown
Prince of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sri Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS), to bring in
reforms within his Islamic republic in a way that his country can do
business/trade with countries across the world and that, as per him, required
institutionalization of such laws that are compatible with the international
ones; certainly Sharia does not fit in there. Contemporary world believes in a
free society that affords equal opportunities to all without prejudice to
colour, gender, race, religion, sect and (in India) castes. Women can’t be
outside of that international order.
Yet, if zealous Muslim religious and
political leaders in Indian Sub Continent long to have Sharia, they may start
with implementing the points (1 to 6) one by one as raised in the preceding
lines for themselves; before getting too vocal about Hijab under the cover of
religious dictate, only to suppress free will of womenfolk.
The way a girl and/or a woman wears
her dress does not define her character and certainly not her nature. Fully
clad need not be virtuous and half naked a harlot. For all the sensuous
feelings arising in a man, on seeing a woman; the woman can’t be asked to cage
her up for protecting herself from these predators. If man can get sensuous on
seeing a woman; which biological science informs us that woman can’t get
sensuous on seeing a man? So, in that case what are men to do? What does Sharia
say? The frog heads need to understand that a man-woman; boy-girl; boy-woman;
man-girl relationship develops instinctively and that has innate consent of
both; there is no way/ no law that can punish such relationships because they
are born out of mutual consent. Rapes and violating sensibilities of either sex
is punishable under law, but not mutual consent.
More fundamental is that there is
this heart which throbs and there are eyes which see and, therefore, even if
fully clad, mutual consent is possible; unless it is decreed that girls/women
should be blindfolded when they move out of their homes!
In any case, it is not and cannot be
prerogative of a Man to decide everything about a woman/girl. It can be no
body’s thesis that men can be immoral/uncultured/debauch, but women have to
have morals/culture/fidelity. Let women be women; men be men and humans be
humans; leave rest to law of the land.
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