A still from the film - the young girl with head scarf
It has been a while that I wanted to write about the much talked about tradition of wearing a Hijab or Burqa. The context was set even better when I saw this short Spanish film by Xavi Sala about Hijab in Europe and the discrimination young Muslim women face in a so-called “free” Europe.
See the film yourself and the message will be pretty obvious. A young school girl is being confronted by her teacher where she in various ways tries to convince the girl to take off her head scarf, which is seen as a symbol of religion. Through the 5 min conversation, we hear the various arguments in favour of the decision to ban Hijab in public schools. The teacher says “we want people to be equal, no one else is wearing a hijab why do you want to wear it? Do your parents hit you if you don’t wear it? This is a place for freedom and liberty, here we cannot allow a sign of oppression.”
The young girl reveals there is no pressure on her from any side, even her parents want her to take it off, but she simply doesn’t want to. She says, “I cannot see myself without it”
Finally she gives in, takes off the head scarf and goes inside the classroom. She takes one look at the students sitting there, none of the students appear equal so far as their physical appearance, clothes, fashion, hairdo were concerened, if one was wearing a bandana, another was wearing a cap, somebody had a weird hairstyle, another had a tattoo, others had piercings…the room was full of all kinds appearance sported by the students. Only she was not allowed to wear a Hijab because that, as per the law makers, was a symbol of religion.
Her freedom to chose whether she wants to wear the Hijab or not was given to her. It will not be too difficult to view this as Islam phobia on the law maker’s part.
In the context of Islam phobia, I read an article which talks about how the progressive Muslim community at large is urging their women to take off the Hijab. I quote,
Opinions about the hijab are often discordant and sometimes contradictory: Is the hijab a duty or a right? Is the hijab an indication of religious freedom or of submission to Islamic extremism?
On March 8th 2008 a group of Arabic websites and blogs launched the international campaign “Take off the veil,” arguing that it is a response to what they see as “intellectual terrorism” practiced by strict Islamic groups and individuals. One of the campaign’s leaders was Elham Manea, a professor at the University of Zurich, who bravely said: “My hair is not a sex symbol that I should be ashamed of, and my body is not a stage for men’s fantasies. I am a noble human being with my hair and body.”
So far so good, I think I understand both views fairly. I however have some unanswered questions. Some time back I got into this debate on twitter. It started when I made a statement on Twitter saying, “the hijab looks like a sign of oppression to me, I don’t understand how some Muslim women happily wear it.” Masarat Daud a progressive, liberal, secular Muslim woman who proudly wears the hijab immediately responded to me asking how could I make that judgment that it is oppression when I have never actually worn it. We debated for almost half an hour exchanging tweets back and forth. I will share the summary with you here.
I have never worn a hijab / burqa, but I still feel it’s oppression on the basis of how I would feel if I was asked to wear one. A big black shapeless colorless garment which covers me from head to toe I will die inside it. In Bangalore everyday while on my way to work I used to see hundreds of young girls wearing it on their way to college near ‘Commercial Street’.
Burqa clad women in a sea beach in Mangalore. Photo by Sanjukta
I remembered my college days, they were best days, of the many fun things we did, shopping was most favourite. But how much fun is it for a burqa wearing women to go shopping? Do they feel excited to buy that brand new Lee jean in store? Or that new Remanika skirt? In summers, do they go shopping for those nice pastel summer shades, how about that long over coat for the winters? Or do they not go shopping at all?
What happens to those small aspirations and desires of young girls to look nice, special, to feel good about what they are wearing, to wear something that compliments their bodies, to look at the mirror and feel nice about what she sees? These desires are all sinful?
When a girl happily makes a choice to wear a Burqa she still is not making a positive choice, it is a negative choice. She wears it because she is conditioned to think think it is the right thing for her to cover her modesty. She wasn’t born with that wisdom somebody told her that it is the right thing to do. Who said it, we don’t know, religion perhaps?
One is also not sure which part of our body exactly is the ‘modesty’. Is it our breasts or the waist or the neck line or the cleavage or the vagina? It is also not clear whether those who cover their modesty are of the impression that others who don’t are not modest. So Sania Mirza or Katrina Kaif are immodest?
When a girl is born in any family she doesn’t automatically know what she will wear when she grows up. Somebody in the family or society tells her what to wear what not to wear. We don’t come with the advance knowledge on types of garments like what is a sari, salwar kameez, trouser, skirt, long dress, short dress et all. We learn from what we see around us.
Some of us have that choice to pick and wear whatever we feel like, some don’t. That’s the difference.
I will have no problem if a girl wears a burqa because she thought it was fashionable to wear one or because she thinks she really looks nice and comfortable in it but if she is wearing it because it is a dress code given to her by her religion it becomes oppression.
That’s why in the short film I fail to agree with the message. A tattoo, a weird hairdo, a bandana or a funky caps are things available in the market as fashion items and we pick up out of our own free will. Religion or culture has got nothing to do with it. But a burqa is given to us by the religion. Whether it is forcible or not, it still remains a religious dictate.
And this oppression is not against women, the dictate that Muslim men should have beard, or Sardar men should have long hair are equally oppressive.
I will end this debate here. Will really love to see Masarat respond to this post.
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Hi,
Although i at times agree to your point but i dont see any harm in a girl wearing a Burqa if its her own free will…Agreed there are womens who are forced to wear the veil but what about those who are not? What if they Really ARE comfortable wearing it? That still wont stop the activists to point fingers at the women even though its her own free will.
Why is the society only seeing at the negative picture?
I personally know of women who love to wear the burqa. Infact there are women who just go shopping for these designer burqa’s
Some wear it to be ambiguous, some find it cool, and yes some do find it oppressive. But why is it always that people who NEVER wear the burqa make such claims.
Its like if a person is eating Non-veg and liking it, a Vegetarian guy (who would vomit at the sight of blood) saying that “How can he/she like that? isnt it yuck”
As always there are 2 sides of the coin, but sadly..the only side which is visible to the world is the one which is shown above the ground.
Signing off
Mubashir
Yes, but just like Hindu married woman are pretty much conditioned to wear the sindoor, the mangalsutra, or some or the other form of bangles and scottish men wear skirts, and different Indian women wear the sari in different ways, as is the hejab- its a cultural thing. All forms of dress peculiar to a certain sector of people have both religious and cultural underpinnings. I think there is too much talk about the hejab being oppressive, when I was a student in London, my university was filled with arabic girls wearing multi-colored hejabs. A walk down Oxford street would with any of them would teach the girls from all other regions a thing or two about shopping. If they don’t see themselves are oppressed, then why should we speak for them? I might feel oppressed by the fact that I cannot waltz down the streets of Delhi in a pair of shorts without feeling uncomfortable, but if I am perfectly comfortable with wearing a salwar-kameez, why must others think I am oppressed? In Iran alone there are 70,000 different ways of wearing the hejab- it might be social conditioning, but so what? What aspect of our life is not? Its possible that you feel suffocated in a hejab, just like I don’t think I can wear what the tribal women wear in the Garo-Khasi hills, but take away your jeans from you, and the tribal jewelry from them and the hejab from woman who’s been wearing it all her life- I think we all might not be able to see ourselves. The effect will be the same.
I don’t really understand why would anyone have a problem with what someone is wearing? Don’t the nuns wear a veil? Is that banned in Europe?
i do not like moral policing and restriction of freedom, but i do not believe in imposing my ideals of freedom on someone as long as they are not being hurt.
India has had queens, warrior queens who used to cover their faces, different reasons,but same principle, even if under a delusion, the right to decide what to wear and what not to, is the individuals.
you have to asusme that unless there are scientific reasons to show that the persons free choice has been compromised, eg in domestic violence, that th choice is free indeed.
As I always say its a matter of perspective. Our sense of right and wrong, what to wear – what not to, what makes one look attractive and what not – they all depend on individual’s perspective. So what to wear and look attractive for a Swahili female can be hugely different from what it is for a ‘Enlightened’ ‘Hindu’ ‘Indian’. Can we say either of them is right or wrong?
And what one feels right depends on our mental conditioning – imprinted on our mind by the ambiance we grow up in and the inputs we ourselves gather. If wearing a tattoo, a bandanna or a cap is not a sign of oppression how can a Hijab or Burqa be one – when it is by choice and not something ordered. Isnt ordering someone NOT to wear something as bad as ordering someone to wear it? If Burqa and Hijab is symbol of religious oppression, can we also say Sindur, Sari, Bangles or even a Holy Cross locket are symbols of religious oppression. Religion is a matter of individual choice, and should be left to the individual!
Personally I feel a touch of Romantic Mysticism is attached to the dress – Burqa. If you think of it, looking at a carefully done up eyes only through a Burqa and using your imagination only to guess how she might look like? That’s amazingly romantic and attractive that even a mini-skirt or a bikini cant beat !
@Tupur: Rightly Spoken..totally agree…y do people think “Ohh Poor Girl” everytime she is seen wearing a hijab?
Its just a tradition…i agree there are extremists too but thats everywhere and every religion…
I think there shudnt be any problem if the girl willingly wears it…
and tell me Sanjukta…What about the Shaving off the head when the Father dies? Isnt that something to be looked at? what if the guy Doesnt wanna get his head shaved?
There are many such things which get ignored..the truth is..society will always see what they want to see…and thats true…nothing is going to change that
isnt it?
[...] the much awaited article on Hijab now published on Bell Bajao Blog. Do check that out and comment. Much talked about Hijab – Still a sign of oppression Burqa clad women in a sea beach in Mangalore. Photo by Sanjukta [...]
I find it interesting how people speak on behalf of others in stating that ’something’ (read=hijab) is a symbol of oppression, considering they haven’t tried it. Let the hijab-wearers speak for themselves.
As for religion ‘dictating’ women to wear hijab, how is this any different from fashion critics and gurus, and trendsetters declaring what is ‘in’ this season and what is ‘out’? There is definitly stigma attached to sporting a trend that has been stated out of ‘fashion’ by society; this puts undue pressure on women and men to be in tune with what’s hot and discard what others (read= fashion icons and gurus) have dictated as ‘not’. Not to mention the fact that this perpetuates a vicious cycle of consumerism.
The bottom line is, our behaviour and mindsets are not strictly exclusive to society (their practices and norms). We are influenced and dictated in some way or another, whether that be religion, culture, social, economic or political ideology.
So why view religion as the big bad wolf?
To each their own. I respect your views, although I may not agree with them. Live and let live. If we truly are a liberal society then we may acknowledge there is room for people of all backgrounds.
Some quirks of my head…are we getting ourselves confused between a hijab and a burkha? they are too distinct things and I think wearing the two things have different bearings all together.
From the way, i see it, i sometimes wear a stole or a dupatta over a short kurti, coz i think it adds an rustic/ethnic (again a loaded term) touch to it. Does that mean it makes me look oppressed or too indian? some might equate my stole/dupatta for a hijab of indians..say that i am hiding what indians very freely associate with modesty- breasts. but is that what i am truely doing? only i know why i do it. so if i am using a dupatta with an attire which typically does not mandate the use of a dupatta or stole am i being opressed by the men in the society or am i doing it becoz i find it nice and comfortable.
why can’t we leave the hijab as a comfort clothing? it may just feel nice to have something on your head. in the desert even men wear scarfs on their head i believe the arabs call it the keffiyeh and they also have a dress that looks just like a burkha the only difference is that its white instead of black.
Now the point of sikh men having to keep long hair is also a sign of oppression – i have my own stand on that. I have lots of friends who are sikhs and they are proud of the fact that they have ‘kesh’ (long hair), coz it is sign of strength for them. it is a sign of courage, they do something that most men would think twice before doing. Do is it really oppressions? It is a choice they take or do not, and they are free to do so. So why are women not allowed to carry a hijab. So tomorrow just because i wear a head scraf like a hijab i become a muslim?
Well if the hijab is oppressive even the ‘ghunghat’ is. Why is there so little hue and cry over it. a woman with ‘ghunghat’ can actually walk in anywhere, can’t she? same is the case with the dupatta! i know a lot of women who keep a dupatta in their bags and would pull it out in places they feel uncomfortable walking alone. why is that never questioned?
I agree with the fact that everything that comes naturally to us is a result of some kind of conditioning by something outside our ‘free will or choice’. Clothings, food habits especially are totally dependent on culture. Religion shapes and is shaped by culture. They are inseparable. A community cannot decide to adopt a ’secular’ culture by rejecting all aspects of the culture that had a religious origin. What is required is to make them aware that they have the right to chose. That Muslim women are free to choose whether to wear a Hijab or not. Forcing women to wear a hijab is just as cruel and oppressive as barring them from wearing one. In the world we live in we cannot have simplistic versions of oppression vs choice, religious symbol vs secular symbol (fashion statements). How would you then categorize Keffiyeh, what has today become such a common style accessory for western kids had a totally different origin and so many meaning attached to it-military, Palestinian solidarity etc
Well.. first of all .. i dont see a solid ground or any relevance at all to what you are saying about liberty and free will.. In my opinion .. there is no such thing as liberty.. We are all bound to certain things and cannot go out of that limit.. just like we are confined to the Earth’s atmosphere and if we try to leave it we wont be able to survive.. Noone can say that I want to go and live on another planet because I am free to do so! then why should we emphasize on the liberty of clothing!! its just material covering our bodies.. you cannot be liberal with something like that.. for modesty is a universal term and noone says its a bad thing.. so how come putting a veil on the head or wearing a burqa is a symbol of oppression? why is it that nuns have to have to wear their clothing in a particular way .. which includes the covering of the head but is never called oppressed.. Hijab is a muslim women’s religious symbol which represents modesty, dignity and demands respect altogether.. I am not saying that every women should wear it and even if she is against it should be forced to wear.. that is choice.. which is totally different from freedom and liberty.. a woman has a choice whether she accepts the hijab or rejects it.. there are many muslim women all around the globe who dont wear the hijab.. doesnt mean that they are against it.. maybe they are just not convinced with the idea of wearing something over the head to be modest.. everyone has a right to choose their religious beliefs.. they are responsible for it .. but at the same time once they are in the sphere of that particular religion.. they are bound by some rules and regulations.. not everything is “okay to do”
How come christians never go to church wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts? that is because their is a particular dress code required for certain places.. just like when you go to a high end restaurant you cannot wear certain types of clothing.. does that mean that they are trying to be oppressive? same here goes for Islam and religion.. Hijab is a mere dress code which identifies muslims.. it doesnt make them stand out or make them look different .. its just the way it is.. its just like wearing jeans or a sari..
As to wondering if veiled women enjoy shopping .. oh yes they do!!!! its one of our favorite pass times.. and myself .. a muslim women who does wear the hijab with a black burqa or abaya.. waits every season for the new collections .. just like any non-hijab girls.. we combine and blend fashion with religion in a very subtle way.. so we can be in touch with our religious beliefs and at the same time look decent and elegant with whatever we wear.. we dont necessary have to show off our beauty to everyone! and thats the beauty of it.. why do you need to show it to someone else.. if this was about any other topic .. people would call it “insecurities” .. I think that i am very beautiful and am confident about it.. I dont need to show it off to everybody to make myself believe that I am pretty.. A woman’s husband is the only one who can tell her how beautiful she is and what complements her.. so why should everyone else see it?
We wear summer shades and overcoats and dress up .. burqa is not the only solution to covering ourselves up its just of the options infact we have an advantage.. if we wake up in the morning not in the mood to dress up .. we can just wear our jean and T-shirt.. tie our hair in an uneven knot and just wear our abaya(burqa) and hijab on top and we are ready to go!
Am an erotica writer. Am a Muslim too. And have never felt the need to wear the hijab. Because I interpret my religion that way. If there is someone who interprets her religion in the way where she thinks hijab is a sign of modesty, let her.
If religion can tell us to love one another, religion can tell us what to wear too. How much power religion has over us, is upto us!
Thanks for the post Sanjukta! I don’t think this post is much different from the debate we’ve had. I think your main issue is not with hijab per se, but it is the stereotyping/categorisation that religion and culture enforce on us. You have such a strong bias against the hijab that you may not accept that we’re really not that oppressed.
With Islam, the unfortunate part has been that the negative, radical elements have taken more media space than the ‘normal’ Islam. In Islam, we are asked to cover ‘modestly’, i.e. in a way that does not unnecessarily attract attention to your body (that may lead to problems such as rape).
Modesty and how it is defined is a completely different topic. I agree with you–the Burkha does not make me more modest than you are. Modesty is in the intentions more than the clothing. So, moving on.
There are different types of covering: some just cover the hair, some nly cover the body but keep the hair open, some cover the hair and body but keep the face open and some cover everything! I cover my body and hair and I don’t think I am oppressed at all. I feel it gives me an individuality because it has made me make a place for myself with dignity, without compromising my value. People accept me for who I am and I never had to change myself to suit others. My values are given by family and my culture, not just religion.
If religion asks us to pray 5 times and we are praying times, what is wrong with that? Just because we are ‘following’ religion does not make us oppressed or weak. All our religions and cultures have left us with symbols, rituals and scriptures and if we choose to follow ours, it really is nobody’s business to judge us.
There are cases where girls are pushed to wear the hijab but there are also people like me who don’t find anything wrong with it. So why does everyone choose to listen to the ‘oppressed’ version but find it difficult to see the ‘empowered’ version? Problem is not with hijab, the problem is with the perspective of people that cannot accept it.
Like I told you, I can wear anything underneath my ‘cloak’ without worrying about what others will think and if I will fit in. I am more free than any woman in a mini-skirt can be! Men judge me for who I am not for my cleavage.
I am a practising (as best as I personally can) Muslim…one that would to outsiders seem a hijabi, namazi type apparently! I have been wearing the Abaya for about 3years now, out of choice, and even my family does not seem to get why I did this! My reasons were several. I felt better wearing it…I also wanted to have the courage to wear a symbol of my faith…perhaps like some wear a cross, a tikka, etc! Espy in the post 9-11 world when someone like me wud be easily categorised as “those”(questionable) kinds, I felt like challeneging the notion that we must be all awful if we are abiding! l When I’m looked at oddly I feel, look this is me, my deepest faith is reflected in my dressing…now if u want to judge me as bad for being this way without knowing me as a person, then that’s your bad! But, I’m not about to bow to that!
The first test is one of choice. Does the woman have a *real* choice of not wearing a certain article of clothing or jewellery?
The second is one of equality. Does the man have to wear something similar–as in something of the same modesty and comfort level?
As an Indian Hindu, I have been dictated to about wearing the sindoor and mangalsutra but I have been able to reject those dictates easily. If I am not able to in a certain community, it is the same as the hijab. If my husband does not need to wear such items, it is the same as the hijab.
However, the problem I see with the hijab is that it is so extreme a symbol of modesty, unlike other religious/social symbols of our time. It’s not just an addition to your clothing.
Even i agree that it’s a person’s free will to choose what he/she wants… But regarding the burqa n hijab i have this opinion that women like wearing it because the men they encounter are perhaps lecherous. If a man stares at a girl with evil in his eyes, a girl feels like killing that chap. But if it happens again n again, she will harm her ownself with all the anger. So when she covers herself, most men turn their eyes or think twice before commenting. Its because of the ‘men world’ that women love feeling comfortable. Imagine a place where men were broad-minded and wont stare at any girl, and would mind their b’ness…not even staring at a girl wearing shorts… then most of the girls would be free from it. Still in such a society if a girl wears it… its her choice… in the end respect an individual’s choice.
I think there is too much talk going around this topic,there is no second thought that wearing a hijab becomes an obvious choice if you have been conditioned that way right from your childhood. Very few people will pick this on a later stage by choice. You call it religion, culture or whatever but conditioning plays an imnportant role.but at the same time these peculiar customs exist in all socities and you cant segregate “hijab” on stand alone basis. What about the dressing code of “nuns”?is it not similer?i cant see any difference other than the colour..my western friends used to wonder that how indian women display their belly in Sari,they think its immodest not to cover your belly.there are no prizes to guess that indian women are not comfortable wearing short skirts or other western dresses and dub western women as immodest. so the argument is endless..its pure conditioning nothing else..you feel strange bcoz you have not been conditioned that way and we start making conclusions about opression n all that jazz…we forget that we are also conditioned in some ways or the other which might be perceived by others as sign of opression or immodesty, so its best to leave it to people rather than making laws about them.
People have been talking about the items of clothing being a matter of choice, but there is one question that needs to be answered that is the true test of choice. I think really the question is this – how free is a woman to reject the abaya/burkha/niqab? What are the consequences if she decided not to wear it?
a) Will everyone in her society accept it, and not be cool about it?
b) Will they look down upon her, and disapprove, and needle her about it, but ultimately accept it?
c) Will they proscribe her, question her morality, her piousness, and her allegiance towards Islam?
If the answer is a), then the woman has true free will to choose. This is where the Sania Mirzas and many educated, empowered women and societies reside.
If the answer is b) it is what many women face daily, (even Hindus when they decide not to take a dupatta, or not wear a sindoor, or when sikhs cut their kesh), but they are not persecuted, at least normally. But this is where the grey area is, and this is where many of middle class, normal people reside. This has women who wear jeans and tees at nightclubs but a ghunghat in front of her Ma-in-law. It can be termed oppression or it can be free will and has to be examined on a case to case basis.
If the answer is c), it is pure and simple oppression, and no amount of ” it’s my choice” arguments can cover that fact up. In situation c) when women say it’s their choice, they are either conditioned/brainwashed or parroting hoary old misogynistic tropes.
This is my personal touchstone. I might be wrong, but my impression is that a) and b) don’t even exist for many Muslim women living in Indian tier 2 cities like Hyderabad and Bangalore, and Lucknow. How can we call it their choice then?