Revolt against Hijab in Iran: 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 21^st century civilization a 7^th 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.