Ironically, it was the politics of cultural assimilation that first helped me change my own textbook positions. It was 2001. 9/11 had just shaken the world and I was in New York. Though it's admirable that there was no violent backlash, I remember how scared Muslims in the city were. In the first few weeks, several Muslim women I met had discarded the safety and comfort of the hijab because they didn’t want to be noticed or targeted. At the city's community centre for Arab-Americans, social workers advised women to dress in a way that would blend them into the mainstream: no headscarves, skirts and dresses, if possible.Why are Indian seculars bellyaching over a remark made by a President of a nation not even in our continent? Isn't that the ironical part?
If we are so hot and heavy on choice, what happened to the choice of a sovereign nation to frame their own rules? What happened to the choice of leading French Muslim intellectuals?
Meanwhile China has banned prayers in Mosques in Urumqi. But don't expect any opinion piece on that one.
1 comment:
Safety and comfort of the hijab?? What on earth is that? Ironically, it is English-education, "modern" women who write about how comforting hijab is. Not women who actually have to endure it.
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