TeaIranian women’s protest against the imposition of the hijab by the Islamic Republic has received overwhelming support around the world, including in India. But Indian Muslim women’s fight for their right to wear the hijab has faced stiff resistance in Karnataka and elsewhere. While both Iranian and Indian women’s protests seek to push back men who impose their will on women’s preferences and bodies, however, there is a considerable difference in the direction in which the two protests have taken. In India, protests by Hindu groups have had a negative impact on Muslim women’s movements and progress within their own community.
I told several Muslim women that their efforts to combat the compulsory hijab or patriarchal practices in Muslim society have been hurt by the communalization and politicization of their issues and the targeting of the Muslim community by Hindu groups. Muslim women say they now feel the need to be more vocal about wearing the hijab because of the attack on their identity and religion. And these attacks have increased since the BJP came to power at the Center in 2014.
“In 2019, Muslim women came out against triple talaq. But the way BJP’s attacks on Muslim society have increased, it has affected the Muslim women’s movement. Right now you cannot raise questions or agitate on issues like polygamy. Because now the question is about survival,” said Zakia Soman, a women’s rights activist and one of the founding members of the Indian Muslim Women’s Movement.
Earlier, Muslim women used to talk openly on issues like hijab, triple talaq and polygamy and also participated in TV debates. But increasing attacks from Hindu organizations have seen Muslim women adopt the hijab as their identity, which they previously discussed as a symbol of patriarchy and against those who considered it mandatory in Islam.
“Feminists have questioned the patriarchal, anti-feminist logic behind the veil. We cannot reduce the hijab in terms of identity or community. There are, of course, other ways to claim one’s identity. While the hijab is mandatory for Islam, it is also a superficial, minimalist understanding of the religion,” said BMMA activist and co-founder Noor Jahan Safia Niyaz. Told Journalist Namita Kohli in an interview in March.
Read also: Study finds recruiters discriminate against Muslim women in hiring entry-level jobs
lost battles on many fronts
Hindutva organizations are not the only challenge Muslim women in India face, feminists in the country are also divided over the hijab discourse. While some say that the hijab cannot be linked to the identity of Muslim women, another section is clear that there is a need to fight the way Hindutva forces are targeting Muslim identity right now.
My women’s rights friends,
I have seen your statements, read your articles.
I am not fighting to protect the hijab. Duration.
Refuse to be the pawn between the Hindu right and the Muslim right.
Hijab is neither my identity, nor my pride, nor my pride.
— Shabnam Hashmi (@ShabnamHashmi) 8 February 2022
2) Hijab is not your or my respect, and that’s okay. But forcing me to stop exercising my choice (even if my choice to wear a dupatta or sindoor, or even to actually marry, “made” or conditioned by the patriarchy) would be a violation of my dignity.
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) 10 February 2022
Part of the division is also over the question of whether the hijab is mandatory in Islam or not.
On the one hand, there is the decision of the Karnataka government to ban Muslim girls from wearing hijab in school, which was later upheld by the High Court. On the other side is Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, which Oppose Called the ban unconstitutional and argued that wearing the hijab is mandatory in Islam.
Muslim women trapped among them are fighting conservatism and patriarchy in their families and deprived of education. And his attempt to oppose patriarchy is undone by Hindutva’s attack on his religious identity. In a way, Hindu organizations have not only tried to consolidate their supremacy within the Indian society but have also helped to strengthen the patriarchy within the Muslim community.
Zakia Soman says that the hijab is a patriarchal symbol and women continue to fight against it. But Hindu organizations have reversed the gains and harmed the anti-hijab movement of Muslim women. Earlier they were discussing against compulsory wearing of hijab but now they are accepting it as a marker of their religious identity.
If Muslim women were not getting their rights enshrined in Islam earlier, then the politicization and communalization of their issues means that they are now being deprived of their constitutional rights as well.
Thoughts are personal.
(edited by Prashant)