Hijab Vs. Education: What Exactly Is The Problem Here?

Brut India

"Why is a small cloth the biggest problem in this country?" Two Muslim women with two different choices tell Brut their views on the hijab controversy.

Transcript

00:00Hi, my name is Naila and I choose to wear the hijab.

00:03This is Asra and I choose not to wear the hijab.

00:30Why is a small cloth the biggest problem in this country?

00:40I had my personal reasons to discontinue wearing a hijab and after that I felt how a piece

00:46of cloth means different things to many different people and I don't think it is justified when

00:53someone thinks a certain way about me because of the way I choose to cover myself.

00:59There's always been a talk of women wearing hijab as oppressive.

01:03The moment you start talking and the moment some sensible words come out of your mouth,

01:08there's an astonishment, which I really personally like to see also on people's faces.

01:12Objections are raised with reasons like Muslim girls are conditioned in a way that compels

01:18them to follow certain things, but even if I'm conditioned in a culture, in a different

01:23way of living my life, you cannot say I don't have free will.

01:27In that case, no one has free will.

01:30Everything we do is based on the information we have.

01:32We are brought up in a culture, a tradition, a practice.

01:37In school, I have always been away from my identity as a Muslim.

01:41I'd be happy to hear it that people don't associate me with the identity of being a

01:46Muslim, but it still comes to you in several ways where your lunch is not shared, people

01:54don't like to sit next to you.

01:56I accepted that I cannot run away from this identity anymore, so now I'm going to flaunt it.

02:02When I stopped wearing it, of course, no questions came from my family, no questions came from

02:07the people who understood why I was wearing it in the first place.

02:10I would still be attached to a few misconceptions in society, only because I'm a Muslim woman.

02:16In India, I was this very modern Muslim woman who is not oppressed, and I was surprised

02:21to know that the moment I took off my hijab, for them, it was something of a very entertaining aspect.

02:27When me and my husband go out to shop things, so I'm talking straight to the shopkeeper

02:33and he wouldn't look at me, he would look at my husband and answer.

02:37It has been blown so much out of proportion, and of course, Islamophobia has fed a lot to it.

02:44Because I was always connected to my faith, in that particular moment, I felt safer,

02:53I felt more composed, once I started wearing the hijab.

02:56Suddenly, I was this uninvited person in a few groups.

03:00I had to over-explain myself to my own friends that, no, I was not forced to do it.

03:05No, my parents did not force me to do it.

03:07I still would have been questioned about my freedom and my identity if I was wearing one,

03:12without anyone realising that these are still in question, without a headscarf on my head.

03:19My faith was not dwindled, but I had a lot of questions.

03:23I was again exploring myself in a lot of ways.

03:25If it makes me stand out, and if people have been so kind to remind me time and again

03:30that I am not amongst them, so it's fine.

03:33But I'm not going to take it up.

03:42What is happening is completely uncalled for controversy.

03:45It is simply bullying Muslim women in the name of politics.

03:48If we were living in a country where every student was stripped of their identity,

03:55of their religious identity, then it wouldn't be a problem.

03:59But why is hijab the only problem?

04:01Students who are wearing a jina'i, who are wearing a tilak,

04:04who are wearing a thread around their neck,

04:07students who come to school in exams carrying some god or goddess or the other for luck.

04:16How can a simple attire on Muslim girls in school is going to harm anyone's dignity,

04:21is going to harm the academic sphere?

04:23It is a part of my identity.

04:25It is. And now when people are after you to take it off or to push it off you,

04:33I think it becomes even more important to you.

04:37For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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