Triple talaq to hijabHow Hindutva reversed gains made by Muslim womens movements – ThePrint

The protest by Iranian women against the Islamic Republics imposition of hijab has attracted huge support around the world, including in India. But Indian Muslim womens fight for their right to wear hijab in Karnataka and elsewhere has faced stiff resistance. While both Iranian and Indian womens protests seek to push back at men imposing their will on womens choices, and bodies, there is, however, a stark difference in the direction the two protests have taken. In India, the opposition by Hindu groups has had a negative impact on Muslim womens movements and the progress they had made within their own community.

Several Muslim women I spoke to say their efforts to counter compulsory hijab or patriarchal practices in the Muslim society have been hurt by the communalisation and politicisation of their issues and targeting of the Muslim community by Hindu groups. Muslim women say they now feel the need to be more assertive about wearing hijab because of the attack on their identity and religion. And these attacks have increased since the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014.

In 2019, Muslim women came out against triple talaq. But the way BJPs attack on Muslim society increased has impacted Muslim womens movement. Right now you cannot raise questions or create agitations on issues like polygamy. Because now the question is about survival,said Zakia Soman, a womens rights activist and one of the founding members of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan

Before that,Muslim women weretalking openly aboutissues like hijab, triple talaq, and polygamy,and takingpartin TVdebates as well.But the risingattacks by Hindu organisationshave madeMuslim women see hijab as their identity, which they were previouslydiscussing as a symbol of patriarchy andspeaking against those ascribing it asmandatory in Islam.

Feminists have questioned the patriarchal, misogynist logic behind the veil, the ghoonghat. We cannot reduce the hijab to a matter of identity or community. Surely, there are other ways of asserting ones identity. That the hijab is essential to Islam is also a superficial, reductionist understanding of the religion, Noorjehan Safia Niaz,activist and co-founder ofBMMA,hadtoldjournalist Namita Kohli in an interview in March.

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Hindutva organisations arent the only challenge that Muslim women in India face, Feminists in the country are also divided on the hijab discourse. While some say that 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.

One part of the divide is also over the question of whetherhijab is mandatory in Islam or not.

On one side is the Karnataka governments decision to ban Muslim girls from wearing hijab in school, which the high court later upheld. On the other side is theJamiat Ulema-e-Hind, whichopposedtheban as unconstitutional and argued that wearing hijabwasmandatory in Islam.

Caught between them are the Muslim women fighting conservatismand patriarchy in their families and being deprived of education.And their effort to oppose patriarchy gets undone by the Hindutva attack on their religious identity. In a way,Hindu organisations have not only tried to consolidate their supremacy within theIndiansociety buthavealso helped strengthen patriarchy within the Muslim community.

Zakia Soman says that hijab is a patriarchal symbol and women have kept the fight going on against it. But Hindu organisations 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 and asserting it as a marker of their religious identity.

IfMuslim womenwere notgetting their rightsinherentin Islamearlier,the politicisation and communalisation of their issues meansthey arenowbeing deprived of theirconstitutional rights as well.

Views are personal.

(Edited by Prashant)

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Triple talaq to hijabHow Hindutva reversed gains made by Muslim womens movements - ThePrint