Traps our ‘liberals’ love to fall in time and again

The battle over hijab may have been lost in one court but as far as society goes, the “war” continues.

Why do I use a military metaphor? Because to negotiate life, personal choice and societal obligations has only become tougher, like a war zone. Add extra layers of difficulty if you are female, if you are from a social and religious minority and especially if you have the might of a bigoted administration and a bigoted majoritarian mindset working against you.

The argument has been so craftily pitched that many “liberals” and feminists are also at loggerheads, not with the bigots themselves, but with the targets of right-wing bigots. And thus, they are on the side of the right-wing bigots.

This is a trap which “liberals” – I use inverted commas because I really don’t know what to call them – fall into again and again when they are artfully laid for them by right-wing bigots.

The immediate targets are young Muslim women, college students in Karnataka who wear the hijab or head scarf. The larger target is the favourite target of the RSS-BJP – the Muslim community in India as a whole.

The Hijab fight is similar to the triple talaq law which is all “feminist” on the outside and so very anti-Muslim on the inside. The ostensible reason for targeting these women is that the hijab is suddenly not part of a college “uniform”, although it has been worn by the same women for years without anyone objecting.

In keeping with the trend of today’s India, the courts have sided with the college managements and the state administration which has decided to free women of their head scarves. The judiciary – in this case the Karnataka High Court – has ruled that the hijab is not “essential religious practice” in Islam.

Feminists and “liberals” have jumped in to support the anti-hijab brigade – which are Hindutva organisations that are part of the RSS-BJP universe – and provided several arguments about how these women are under the patriarchal thumb of Islam, how the hijab is a sign of regressive traditions and so on.

This gives the enormously regressive and patriarchal Hindutva brigade an additional hammer with which to triumphantly batter Muslim women – removing the hijab is now an act of freeing Muslim women from themselves.

By playing into the hands of the regressive Hindutva right-wing mobs, Indian “liberals” and feminists have not just reduced the dwindling support system for India’s Muslims, they have set themselves a massive task: to now take up with the same violent enthusiasm the removal of all regressive patriarchal traditions of all the religions practised in India.

I joke of course.

Or do I?

The hijab is a choice made by Muslim women. It may be a religious choice, it may be a societal choice, it may be a patriarchal choice, it may be a regressive choice, it may be a choice for freedom, where you barter one freedom – a scarf-less head – for another freedom – access to education.

When I was in school, girls wore dresses to school. Today, they wear salwar kameezes. Someone made a choice. That to cover your legs was worth the sacrifice to educate larger sections of society. How many feminists stood at school doors pulling the salwars off the legs of girls to free them from the yoke of patriarchal thinking?

If the hijab has to go, it can only do so when enough Muslim women decide that they do not want it.

Human society – and especially a country like India with its high religiosity content – is a series of choices and changes. Our everyday life is filled with Hindu majoritarianism with little symbols which we all accept and take for granted, from lighting lamps at official events inaugurations to singing the Gayatri Mantra at the drop of a hat to the lawns of the Supreme Court of India-- our biggest Constitutional authority-- being used for Holi celebrations by the Supreme Court Bar Association.

And yet, the head scarf fills us with horror?

The notion that the RSS-BJP is remotely interested in “secularism” is a joke. Or it would be funny if the RSS-BJP mindset was not so toxic and fascist, so regressive and patriarchal and most of all, so oppressive to all liberal thought.

The minefield of negotiation that is India is frightening enough. That some of our much-admired liberal minds cannot understand the difference between feminism and disguised patriarchy is astounding or just plain appalling.

Across India, Hindu women face the most terrible patriarchy still and extremely regressive customs are now widely practised thanks to Bollywood and the rank commercialization of our lives.

These Muslim women in headscarves were molested by Hindutva men. How many Hindutva men do you see protesting against Karwa Chauth and Rakhi?

Suddenly, we’re neither that liberal nor that feminist, eh?

(The author is a senior journalist. Views are personal)