The Hijabis, the Hijab, and The 'Secularists (India waale)'

The Hijab wearers and Hijabis are two entirely different species. They have different objectives and compulsions. Different history and obviously, different future. The recent Hijab row in KA is not what it seems. It's not about Hijab at all. No one is denying right of a woman to wear Hijab. The argument here is to follow the school uniform, which does not allow Hijab. The girl students can wear Talibani attire from their homes to the school - they may even walk few steps behind their fathers or walk in chains, for anyone to care. But if they want to take education in the school or take exams, then they need to shed Talibani attire, and transform into a normal student. Student, who aspires to learn and not carry the sword of religion everywhere. From the law and from judiciary's perspective, the row is related to the rights of school institutions to manage their own schools. Some schools don't have uniforms, some do. The expectation is for students to follow the mandate School authorities have established. And, if they don't want to follow it then they can enroll into schools that aligns with their dressing preferences. That's it. That's the extent of this whole thing. 

But are these so called students really looking for explanation or even answers on their concerns with dress code? 

The 'Hijabis':

The question for the ' Hijabis' is not the dress code or religious attire. Especially since these Hijabis aren't the one wearing the Hijab. The question is not even the freedom of attire. The real question is, can Hijabis impose the Hijab not only on the hapless Muslim women of India but also, indirectly, on the non-Muslim population of India? Can they impose their regressive, militant and  medieval thought process on forward looking and largely secular country? Can they force the judiciary to move away from reason, rationality, constitution and law? Can they force political parties to toe their line? Can they establish their version of Islam supremacy over everyone? Can they change definition of secularism so much so that Jihadi mindset is now considered as a legitimate Secularism in India? By the way, there's nothing new to this sort of religious imperialism. Whether it's cutting the country into pieces for the sake of religion, to having a different personal law, from having a different govt. body to look after their interests, to having govt. subsidies to travel to Hajj; these Hijabi's have done it all and then some. The list of such 'triumphs' of Hijabis is long and still continuing. At some level, one has to give them credit for being so successful in their mission - they ethnically cleansed Hindus from Kashmir and yet managed to portray Kashmir as a cause for Muslim persecution! 

The Hijab: 

This one is a tough one. Some Muslim ladies obviously like to wear their Hijab. There is nothing wrong in that, their choice. However, considering how in post WWII world has generally progressed, and how the Hijab essentially demarcates line between modern world and not-so-modern world, one need to question the the sudden love towards Hijab. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan are some of the few countries that enforces Hijab and these countries are entirely non-democratic. The timeline and scale of enforcement is also varied.  Iran enforced the Hijab only after 1979 and Afghanistan enforced it after 1995. What's more amusing is Iran doesn't impose head-to-toe Burqa the way these so called Muslims 'feminist' students of Karnataka are demanding. Moreover, throughout the history of Islam, the dress code varied per the geographic region. For example, Kashmiri Muslim women always wore traditional Kashmiri clothes till vary recently. Post WWII, situation started to shift when the oil money from Saudis started flowing into rest of the world. The Hijab started appearing conspicuously across non-Arab world. It became the symbol of pure form of religion when in reality, it only represented the effect and impact of hegemony of Saudi brand of Islam.  Perhaps, the Karnataka controversy is just an extension of that agenda? It will be impossible to prove that but it is not far fetched to surmise that  when there is no consistency on Hijab imposition even among the Islamic countries, this particular manufactured controversy is clearly a political and religious agenda setting by Islamists. 

The Secularists (Jamaat-e-Liberals): 

Now, let's talk about worse among the worse. I mean, the absolute filth, bottom of the barrel awfulness. The absolute worse among all mentioned above is not the jihadi mindset, Islamists or foreign money. It's the 'jamaat' of  self proclaimed woke, the so called liberals, the so-called Secularists that are found only in India. These dangerous morons practice a special brand of secularism. That's because these people are not liberal, nor woke and what's worse, they are so far away from Secularism that the French who devised the very concept may just be burying themselves in in Pere-Lachaise. This secular mafia has certain definitive traits. They are staunchly anti-Hindu, they are staunchly anti-India, they are staunchly anti-progress, they are generally staunchly against anything that's rationale, anything that requires dialogue, or requires understanding of context or requires mature dialogue. Moreover, they are staunchly against finding a solution or against resolving any issue. They want to maintain the status quo. Because unresolved issues helps these creatures to survive. They get to yap about it on Twitter, yap further on TV channels, write mind numbingly stupid Op-eds in the newspaper. Somehow these awful people have made into political, judicial and public discourse as well. 

For some reason, the wokenss doesn't apply to caging Muslim women in Hijab. The choice cannot be given to them. The liberalism does not have apply to rights of educational institutions to have dress code. The 'expertise' does not agree with the fact that Islamic jurisprudence does not mandates the burqa! The agenda is to rile up the issue to stratosphere, corner the government, bring the educational institutions to their knees, adversely impact student's right to education and defame the society and the country along the way. The fact these so called liberal, woke, secularists are in agreement with Talibani mindset isn't jarring enough. The reality, as it appears, is that these so called secularists are here to further the Talibani agenda! 

The hope:

But all is not lost. The controversy (and potentially violence) generating religious, quasi-state actors and the non-state 'secular' 'activists' will not be successful in their nefarious design. The Hijab or Burqa is not universally admired or agreed upon across Muslims in India. Time and again, Indian Muslim women have risen above and shown the world their worth. Numerous examples across broad social spectrum have succeeded in variety of fields to emphasize the point that patriarchal structure of their religion can be won over. Similar controversy was generated against Triple Talaq but it failed to garner any traction. Same fate awaits this issue as well. In the meantime, the emergence of Muslim women as a voting block has potential to disrupt electoral structure across the country. The continued success of BJP in numerous state and central elections points towards the potential that Muslim women might be voting for BJP. 

The irony is, though this issue is manufactured through college going Muslim women, it is the Muslim women only who can win this fight. I still have high hopes that this time they will fight. The children of Shah Bano will triumph.