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Politics behind the purdah
Women have become a pawn in the hands of
fundamentalists where only men rule.
BY SATHYA S
The imposition of a
dress code on Muslim women in Kashmir valley is an ‘act of desperation’ of the
terrorists who have miserably failed in their mission to capture Kashmir. It is
a desperate act of taking control over the citizens of the Valley, in the name
of religion and culture, while the decades of militancy has failed to achieve
their goal. But sadly, the purdah threat is understood only as women’s issue or
as an issue of religious practices. It is needed a political issue, a political
agenda of the terrorists.
The Kashmir issue has been
fought on war fields, across tables and against the innocent citizens of the
Valley by the militants, for several decades now. But the result has been
disappointing for the terrorists and their supporters. The desperation has led
to the act of controlling the people in the name of religion.
It was a moment of shock
when the terrorists announced that the Kashmir Muslim women should cover
themselves with burqa and no woman should be publicly seen without the burqa or
a veil. Initially not many took this seriously. But when the terrorists attacked
a young girl in Srinagar and tried to disfigure her face with acid for not
adhering to the dress code, it sent a signal of terror to all the women in the
Valley.
The sale of burqas shot up
and prices, too, followed. Shamefully, businessmen were competing to sell the
burqa. The role of the media in this issue has been far from satisfactory.
Indeed the deadline of September 10 to adhere to the dress code was being
watched closely by many across the country. But the media, totally engrossed
with the terrorist attack on America, fully ignored the plight of Kashmiri
women.
The media did little to
show that terrorism, nurtured by America, will one day destabilize the social
structure by imposing restrictions on the innocent people of the land. It failed
to consolidate the resistance to the dress code; it did little to strengthen the
hands of the Kashmiri women to oppose the threat to their freedom.
Worse is the silence on the
part of the state and central governments in this issue. It is months since the
purdah threat has been issued and women have unwillingly retreated behind the
burqa but there is not a single statement from the establishment in support of
the fundamental rights of these Kashmiri Women. This shows that the government’s
understanding of terrorism is limited to the language of guns and bombs.
Restricting the freedom of people through fatwas is a much worse kind of
terrorism, which unless annihilated in the initial stage, will destabilize the
very social structure of society.
Unlike in 1990, when people
across the land fought similar restrictions with strong opposition, the reaction
this time is scattered and feeble thanks to the growing fundamentalism in the
country. The condemnation by a few religious organizations have been more on
religious grounds.
Burqa was never a part of
the Muslim women’s attire in Kashmir. But of late from Kashmir to Kerala, purdah
is widely seen. The religious minorities see burqa, as a tool of defence, a
symbol of identity and a sign of cultural heritage in the face of majority
fundamentalism.
What started as a defence
mechanism has grown into a forced religious practice. And women have become the
prey for the defence, for the identity and to uphold the cultural ethnos of a
community. It has been the women across the globe and in the entire history that
have been shouldering these responsibilities because these rules are always
framed by the men.
The
dress code curtails the mobility of women and their development. If the
religious fundamentalists impose it in the name of religion, the conservatives
do it to preserve culture and the terrorists to achieve their political goal. We
have been witnessing it in our own country. Hindu fundamentalists are using the
college and university campuses to impose dress codes. Women have become a pawn
in the hands of fundamentalists where only men rule.
It is to be realized that
this is not an issue confined to women. If we do not come out strongly against
this imposition now, tomorrow it will engulf one and all. We already have
several such examples in the country. In Manipur a terrorist group has declared
similar dress code for women according to media reports. It has threatened to
shoot down those who do not abide by the code. This is an example enough to
understand the seriousness of the issue.
(The writer is a
freelance journalist).
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