Forty Dreams Shattered as Girls Prefer Hijab to Education
Muslims Should
Establish More Schools And Colleges For Girls.
Main
Points:
1. 40 Muslim
girls skip exams in Udupi.
2. They were
barred from entering exam hall in hijab
3. Majority of
the girls prefer exams to hijab
----
By New
Age Islam Staff Writer
31 March
2022
(Photo: OneIndia for Representative Purpose)
------
The hijab
row in Karnataka took its toll on the educational career of forty Muslim girls
who preferred hijab to education. They skipped their exam when they were not
allowed to enter the exam hall with hijab.
These girls
had big dreams and wanted to become doctors, engineers, professors, lawyers,
judges or fashion designers but now their future hangs in uncertainty. The
teachings that had been imparted about veil had made their attitude rigid.
The trend
of purdah or hijab among young Muslim girls is not very old. Even two decades
ago, Muslim girls used to go to schools, colleges and universities without
hijab. What they cared for was a decent dress. The parents did not have any
problem. Religious leadership never encouraged girls' education and so madrasas
were only meant for boys. Girls were taught at home.
In every
town of India, schools for boys or for both boys and girls were established not
by ulema but by social workers and educationists who knew the importance of
education. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan is one example. The ulema only opened madrasas
for boys. Though they formally used to say that education was necessary for men
and women, they never meant it. They had the view that women should only manage
their homes. They should not work in offices in close proximity with men and
their earnings should not be accepted by their family.The fatwa of Darul
Deoband is well known in this regard.
So the
girls who today want to get higher education are not inspired by ulema because
ulema never encouraged them to go to schools or colleges. But ironically, the
girls who go to colleges against the wish of the ulema are unduly inspired by
the ulema on their views on hijab or veil. After passing the exams and graduating
from colleges, these girls will go for higher studies and find jobs as
professors in schools, colleges and universities where they will work in 'close
proximity' with male professors or teachers. If they become doctors, they will
have to work in 'close proximity' with male doctors and deal with male patients
of all hues. If they become engineers, they will face the same dilemma. And
when at the end of the month, they will bring home the salary, their family
will not accept it because it will be haram for them.
Presently,
not only in India but also in most of the Islamic world, women work with men in
every sphere of life. No one cares for the fatwa of Deoband. When the Islamia
Inter College of Deoband allowed the girls in 1995, the ulema made a hue and cry
but the parents sent their daughters to the college. Parents did not give any
importance to the objections raised by ulema.
Two decades
ago, this would not have been an issue for girl students. This dilemma with the
girls of Karnataka is faced because of the rigid interpretation of religion
gaining more ground there. Ironically, in Afghanistan, the women are forced
purdah and in India, girls are forcing hijab on themselves.
This is
only the result of increasing identity-oriented religiosity in India among the
Muslims. Some radical and conservative Ulema advocate full veiling of face
except a hole before the right eye though the Quran and hadith do not prescribe
this kind of veil. In a multicultural society where Muslim women want equal
visibility with the women of other religious communities, they cannot afford to
be so rigid as to keep themselves invisible in society. In the process of
keeping them invisible, they have made them hypervisible which has created
problems for them.
According
to the reports, 13 girl students of 28 from R. N. Shetty P.U. College attended
the exams. 4 out of 5 girls of Udupi Bhandarkar College attended the exams. All
the Muslim girls of Sharda College attended the exam. In two other colleges,
only 2 out of 10 or 8 students attended the exams.
Obviously,
for some girls, their future and their career was more important than than the
hijab. Some colleges are girls' college where girls could have no problem
attending the exam without hijab.
Before the
girls who skipped their exam due to ban on hijab, some Muslim women resigned
their job because they would not forgo hijab. These girls will face similar
problem in future, if not now if they have a rigid notion of hijab in a
multicultural society.
The Muslim
intelligentsia is also to blame for the current cultural dilemma of the Muslim
girls. They realised the importance of girls' education, though belatedly but
they did not pay attention on establishing schools and colleges for girls. They
encouraged their girls to wear hijab and keep their religious identity intact
but were compelled to send their girls to study in schools and colleges
established by non-Muslims. If they wanted their girls get higher education,
they should have opened girls' schools and colleges in every town. In fact, girls'
schools should have become an essential part of a Muslim society.
The hijab
controversy should now stir the collective conscience of the Muslim society. A
constructive approach finds opportunity in every crisis. And there is
opportunity for Muslims in the hijab crisis. The Muslims should chalk out a
long term policy of establishing schools, colleges and vocational training
centres for girls where Muslim girls can study while not being forced to remove
hijab. If a community is so obsessed with its religious identity and about its
women, it should not leave them at the mercy of others or should not ask for
privileges.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/dreams-girls-hijab-education/d/126700
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