Why Indian liberals are not talking about anti-hijab protests in Iran

Forgive me if this offends some sensitivities, but it’s good to see Muslim women finally take a stand against hijab — and that too in the heart of the Islamic world. People around the world have been riveted by footage of Iranian women, burning their hijabs, filming themselves cutting their hair, and flaunting their bare heads and faces in public in an unprecedented defiance of attempts to impose a medieval dress code on them in the name of religion.

Contrast this with Indian Muslim women who are agitating for exactly the opposite cause — to be allowed to wear hijab. Indeed, they are prepared even to sacrifice their educational and professional careers for the privilege of wearing a piece of cloth which, for all the claims to the contrary, has no sanction in Islam. One wonders what they make of their Iranian Muslim sisters and their protests. “Brain-washed” by Western propaganda? Victims of a foreign conspiracy to defame Islam as the Iranian regime claims?

The protests, triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody after being arrested by Iran’s feared vice squad, have been likened to the popular “Arab Spring” that rocked the Muslim world in early 2010-12. Amini’s only crime was walking in a Tehran public park “inappropriately dressed”. A code for not wearing a hijab in violation of Iran’s strict Islamic dress code requiring women to cover their hair, and wear loose-fitting clothes in public.

It is alleged that she was beaten and sustained serious injuries to her head during her arrest causing her to fall into a coma from which she never recovered. Iranian authorities claim that she fell ill has few takers. Her father insists that she had no health problems and blames the police for her death.

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The nationwide protests following her death have been described as the biggest since the 2019 agitation against high fuel prices. Several people have been killed and many more injured in police action. Amini’s hometown of Saghez has echoed with shouts of “Death to Dictator”, apparently referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It couldn’t get more daring than this in an infamously repressive and vindictive system.

The protests spread beyond Iran. Iranians in New York took to the streets during President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to attend the UN General Assembly session. He was trailed by protesters demanding justice for Amini, and an end to repression.

A significant aspect of Iran’s anti-hijab movement is the support it received from men who came out on the streets in solidarity with their wives and daughters fighting for their right to dress as they wish. Muslim men in India, on the other hand, are nudging their womenfolk into a regressive direction — effectively doing the work of the mullahs (equivalents of Iran’s hated morality police) in pushing their pseudo-religious patriarchal agenda.

Indeed, I’ve struggled to find public show of support for Iranian women in India — even among feminists. After scouring the Indian media at length I came across only two women activists (both non-Muslims) who found time to speak up for their Iranian sisters — Advaita Kala, a journalist, and Kirti Bharti of Saarthi Trust, a non-profit organisation which works for the rights of vulnerable women and children.

Both were right to point out that the opposition to hijab is not a religious issue and should not be seen as an attack on Islamic practices. By the way, it’s well known that it has no roots in Islamic theology or law — and not wearing it doesn’t make someone a lesser Muslim.

The debate is really about women’s rights. Those who want to wear a hijab or any other piece of clothing for whatever reason should have the right to do so; and those who don’t want to dress in a certain way should not be steamrolled into doing so in the name of religion. It’s as arbitrary to ban hijab as it is to impose it. What Iranian women are doing is challenging such arbitrariness.

“To go up there and challenge them (Iranian regime) this way is not only an act of performative activism but putting their lives in the hands of these people who are known for their brutality when it comes to women rights, I think it’s truly incredible. My only appeal to anybody watching (this) anywhere in the world, is to come out and support these women because they need our support in order to challenge this and live a free life,” Advaita Kala told a TV news channel.

Kirti Bharati warned that Iran-style moral policing was spreading beyond autocratic and theocratic states. “It is everywhere, even in India. We are told to do this and not to do that. This is where gender discrimination begins,” she told a TV channel.

But the good news, she said, was that women were fighting for their rights, and needed to be supported by all those who believed in individual freedom. “If a woman will not understand her rights, then she will never know if she is being exploited or abused. The whole world needs to support this and only then the revolution can be brought,” Bharati said.

Clearly, the memo hasn’t gone out to Indian liberals judging from their intriguing silence. Their problem is that much as they might like to speak out, they fear that they cannot do so without being accused of double standards and contradicting themselves — having defended pro-hijab warriors at home.

The argument is that you can’t support hijab in one case and then join opposition to it in another in the same breath without falling between two stools. But it’s a slightly disingenuous argument. It’s actually possible to support both so long as we treat it as an issue of individual rights — and not one of a community’s religious or cultural identity.

The mistake liberals have made is to fall into the trap of being led to believe that any opposition to hijab is an attack on Muslim identity. It is not. Both Muslim women in India and their Iranian peers are simply asking for the same thing: their right to what or what not to wear unless it breaches laws around obscenity and public order.

It’s time to de-Islamise the hijab debate and put it on a secular footing. And there couldn’t be a better time to do it than now when Iranian women are there to show us the way. If Muslim women in an Islamic theocracy can do it, so can we. All we need to do is rid ourselves of our ideological blinkers. Are we up to it?

The author is an independent commentator. Views expressed are personal.

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