A Step Towards Gender Justice and Plural Ethos

Abhay Kumar

Chief Minister Chief Minister Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka Government recently decided to reconsider the ban on wearing hijabs at public educational institutes.

Speaking at a gathering in Mysore on Friday, the Chief Minister, as reported by NDTV (December 22), said that “Hijab ban isn’t there anymore. (Women) can wear hijab and go anywhere. I have directed to withdraw the (ban) order”.

Undoubtedly, it is a welcome decision. Giving assurance to the people, Siddaramaiah said that they were free to “eat” and “wear” as they wanted.

As he put it, “How you dress and what you eat is your choice. Why should I obstruct you?... Wear what you want. Eat what you want. I will eat what I want, you eat what you want. I wear dhoti, you wear pants, shirt. What’s wrong with that?”.

The decision of the Karnataka Government does not only strengthen social harmony in India but also promotes the ideals of gender justice, cultural diversity and pluralism, one of the key pillars of the Indian Constitution.

The decision to withdraw the ban on Hijab will empower women and encourage them to pursue their education.

Siddaramaiah coming as he does from a historically oppressed caste and whose association with the movements of social justice, has been long, has set an example for other leaders of the secular parties to follow.

His loud message to the secular camp is that the soft-Hindutva strategy and turning back on the marginalized communities including the Indian Muslims, is self-defeating.

In the light of the Congress defeat in Madhya Pradesh, Siddaramaiah’s acts assume much bigger importance. For example, former CM Kamal Nath, the face of the Congress party in Madhya Pradesh wasted a lot of crucial time by visiting Babas and fell at their feet to seek blessings ahead of the assembly elections.

He even publicly made a statement that credit goes to the Congress party for opening the gates of Ram Temple.

The blessings of the Hindutvafunded Babas and Kamal Nath’s compromise with secular politics could not prevent the Congress from facing a humiliating defeat in the state.

Leaders like Kamal Nath should learn from Siddaramaiah that politics-based secularism and social justice can only defeat the BJP and the RSS.

Siddaramaiah was quite aware of the game plan of the saffron government which banned the Hijab at the Govt educational institutes ahead of the state assembly elections to fight elections on anti-Muslim agendas.

It was a diversionary ploy to deflect public attention from mounting corruption in the state and worsening employment situation. The Hijab ban came months before the assembly elections as per the political strategy.

The Godi media mischievously created an impression that the protests against the ban were led by “radicalised” Muslim students and organizations.

The intellectuals and activists who spoke in favour of gender justice and cultural pluralism were demonized as “supporters” of obscurantism and patriarchy within the Muslim community.

The same trope was also used during the BJP’s campaign around the triple talaq issue. While the BJP is fond of selectively invoking the Muslim women question and using it as part of its anti-Muslim agenda, it is afraid of touching the subordinate position of Hindu women in the family.

Amid all these challenges, the Karnataka Government has taken a bold decision to stand with the marginalized Muslim women.

An ideal position on such issues could be that Women’s choice to wear what they want should be respected and one should neither force them out of what they want to wear nor coerce them into wearing something that they don’t deem fit for themselves.

Our Constitution gives citizens the right to freedom. The state has no business in poking its nose into what one wants to eat or wear. A large number of Muslim women wear Hijab when they step out of their homes.

Wearing a Hijab outside their homes gives them confidence. They show that Hijab does not pose any threat to security as argued by communal forces. Rather, it shows the beauty of our multicultural society.

Such women are within the Constitutional laws to go to college, university, hospitals, seminar rooms and Parliament, wearing a Hijab. If we are not Islamophobic, then the hijab will appear to us as normal as a saree, salwar, shirt, or pants.

However, it is also true that in a Muslim male-dominated society, the Hijab is imposed on women on some occasions. But it is not exclusive to the Muslim society alone. More or less, the Hindu males do impose a particular dress code on their women.

That is why, we should uphold freedom and denounce coercion wherever they