The Hijab Controversy

Hijab Ban: Identity Politics or Body Policing? Teesta Setalvad in conversation with social scientist Dr. Muniza Khan.  https://www.facebook.com/cjpindia/videos/925927511456841/?t=223  Citizens For Justice and Peace

Category: The Hijab Controversy

Media enter a classroom and film minor girl students

Incidents of media abuse following the interim order of the Karnataka High COurt as reported by Bahutva Karnataka Network.

The Kannada news channel Public TV aired coverage on 14th and 15th February entered a classroom in a government Urdu school in Gulbarga and without the consent of authorities or parents started filing girl children.
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rbXSQtCy4w  : In this report, Public TV has claimed that students were asked to remove the hijabs after your channel reported on this in Gulbarga. Visuals of girls with and without the hijabs were repeatedly flashed.
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TgndGR8xCE  : In this report, the reporter is inside a classroom, disrupting classes, speaking to teachers even as examination papers are being distributed, and speaking to the anchor in the classroom space. The reporter asks the teacher how they allowed students to sit in the classroom with the hijab on.
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j1Q8IqdSBQ : In this video, the anchor claims that students who were not wearing hijab have now decided to wear the hijab. There is no evidence or substantiation presented. There are also claims being made that the students don’t seem to care about the interim order and have come wearing the hijab.

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N6ZGp9UaBc  In this report, the claim is made that only after Public TV’s coverage, teachers have got the girls to remove their hijab. The reporter claims that this should have been done by teachers but “we have had to do the work of warning them…Schools have left students to sit in classes with the hijab. Both students and schools don’t seem to be inclined to following the high court order."

5. Mudigere -Police enter school premises and send girls wearing hijab out of the school

The Cognate on 15th February reported that in a school in Mudigere, around 20 hijab-clad students were sent out of class after the police department entered.

Category: The Hijab Controversy

Majoritarianism is wearing the veil of debate  https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/majoritarianism-is-wearing-the-veil-of-debate/article38393478.ece 
Kavita Krishnan FEBRUARY 07, 2022 v

My piece in today’s https://twitter.com/kavita_krishnan/status/1490904455768055810 @the_hindu on how majoritarian thugs are wearing the veil of “debate over hijab”. Women’s freedom to dress in keeping with their own conscience must get Constitutional protection from discriminatory dress codes whether they wear “modest” OR “immodest” dress!

Response rishianand OP
A few years ago, when asked whether we should accept the SC Judgment on Ayodhya case and move on for the sake of peace and resolution to the conflict, Justice Ashok Ganguly said, peace is not the same as justice. Justice is fair, while peace can be imposed by force or threat. This was at the time of the CAA-NRC movement, which I was a part of, and I was attending a seminar of Justice Ganguly.

It is a gross injustice to use the threat of law and order to suppress a minority community. The controversy around Hijab is not of progressiveness, patriarchy, or secularism. It is about denying the girls their right to education, the right to peaceful existence, and using the pretense of uniformity to forcefully strip them of their identity. Hijab has been a part of dress code in universities in India, and around the world...

Category: The Hijab Controversy

Jyoti Punwani writes: Then, as now, powerful forces mobilised groups of men against women’s choice. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/theres-an-echo-of-the-shah-bano-case-in-the-hijab-controversy-7774077/

Today the country's Leftists, Liberals and feminists find themselves standing shoulder to shoulder with organisations that support the Taliban, carry out Islamic punishments for 'blasphemy' and harass Muslim girls who wear jeans in Colleges.  These organisations are invited on media channels as the young women's spokespersons... The tragedy is those who have struggled for decades to reduce religiousity in public places have been reduced to fighting for more of it...

Comment:   I do object to making an equivalence between religiosity in public space and political assertiveness of the parties concerned. The girl who was sloganeering say Allah u akbar clearly said in her interview to NDTV, that it was not the school which propelled her to shout that slogan, but the guys from outside who were forcing her. We have to recognise that the Mullas also like this kind of response because it gives them more power, that same with the dharam sansad guys. Even people who want to show their "religiosity" want to exhibit it and are allowed to do so, then it will take the wind out of the sails of the political assertiveness. This will happen more when we also ask local people to reflect on the religious symbolism.. For example the whole fiasco at the Ganga, has been taken badly by a majority of Hindus.. The only reason why they dont say it aloud is because their criticism is tom-tomed by people like us.. We have to demand that those who project religious symbols, should apply the religious principles in their social and political behaviour.. We have to hold their politics to their reigious values. 

The Problem is that most of us liberals , Socialists and People on the Left are shy of engaging in anything considered "spiritual" or "religious", That is also because of our understanding that all things "rational" only comes from the logic, positive sense based knowledge, which has total consistency. We aren't humble enough to admit that we are falable, and perhaps dont understand as much as we think we do.. 

Category: The Hijab Controversy