BY ZOHRA JAVED
My earliest memories of the burkha are indeed as ancient as me
myself! In my native place, all the women in the family wore the burkha, the
black all-covering garment under which if they wore nothing else no one would
ever know!
My late father left his home town in search of a better future
and landed up in what was then Bombay almost immediately after he received his
engineering degree. His job took him to some of the most beautiful hill spots in
Maharashtra. All the employees of the company posted in a particular place lived
with their families in the company’s residential colonies built near the
worksites. That was an eye-opening experience for my mother who still has vivid
memories of how difficult it was for her in the beginning to do away with the
burkha.
I recount this to emphasise a reality that has been
significantly overlooked in the debate on the burkha/hijab: the burkha in most
cases is a "family tradition" that inadvertently became a habit as it was passed
down through generations. Hence it must be clearly noted that there is no love
of god or making a choice involved in this.
I have heard since childhood that Islam is more about intent –
to become a good, god-fearing human being – rather than the peripheral rituals
that change from place to place and culture to culture. When, for instance, one
is praying to god almighty, it is actually the connection with the supreme
creator that is at the centre of it all. The way one prays is perhaps of lesser
consequence but a certain method and manner have evolved over the years for the
sake of uniformity and possibly even for the health benefits to be reaped from
the exercise.
After the presidents of France and the USA gave their verdict on
the burkha, and even before that, various interpretations of the Koran have been
doing the rounds, each one claiming to be authentic and well researched. So we
now hear that the burkha was meant as a respectful covering only for the
prophet’s wives. The others were supposed to be modest (and decent) in dress and
bearing. But this divine message of modesty was applicable to both men and
women.
Much to my amusement, I find men very vehement in their fight
for female "modesty and rights" in choosing to wear the burkha. But sadly, their
voices seem to choke when it comes to family planning, triple talaq, a widow’s
right to the guardianship of her minor children and other such matters.
Yes, indeed women must have the right to choose, as some
benevolent men are suggesting in the context of the hijab or burkha. President
Sarkozy’s diktat is being equated to the Talibanisation of cultures that has
taken place in some parts of Asia in the recent past. President Obama has chosen
a middle ground on the issue, saying the United States does not dictate what
people should wear. (Well, the US has other, more barbaric things to do – but
that is another story!)
The question is: are these gentlemen – Sarkozy and Obama, and
all those who comprise the Taliban – religious or even humane representatives of
the oppressed people, in this case, the "religiously imprisoned women"? I think
it would be worthwhile to note that they are all politically motivated
power-hungry people. Just as the Taliban cannot be deemed to be friends of Islam
for what they are doing, Sarkozy cannot be pronounced an enemy of Islam. They
know, as indeed we all do, that it is essentially none of their business whether
a woman wears a burkha or shuns it.
Also, like it or not, and forgive my bluntness here, the fact is
that the burkha has of late become more of a fashion statement for the
dollar-and-dinar-rich, kitty-party kinds who can spend a fortune on clothes and
accessories (remember, wasteful and extravagant expenditure is prohibited in
Islam), the burkha being a recent addition as a "religious" adjunct.
At the heart of my debate is the basic right of a woman to
choose, to be able to use her intelligence, as my mother did: when she had the
opportunity to choose, she stopped wearing the burkha. I think most genuinely
liberated women would do the same if their minds were not stuffed with the fear
of "Allah’s wrath" falling upon them and the fires of hell burning the "exposed"
portions of their bodies.
I wonder why we do not hear any such diktat in the context of
men.
(Zohra Javed, who lives in Navi Mumbai, strongly believes that
there is no religion other than insaniyat – humanity.)