Muskan, Malala and Taliban
Taliban Should First Honour the Rights of
Afghan Women
Main Points:
1.
Teenage girls of Afghanistan have
been barred from attending school by Taliban
2.
Women are being removed from jobs
and media by Taliban
3.
Taliban believes in rule of the gun.
4.
Indian Muslims believe democratic
values.
----
By New Age Islam Staff
Writer
17 February
2022
Muskan
Khan, shouted Allahu Akbar amidst saffron flag weilding students
----
The Hijab
controversy of Karnataka College in India has drawn the attention of the world
and particularly the Muslim world has stood up with the Muslim college student
Muskan Khan who shouted Allahu Akbar amidst saffron flag wielding students
opposing Hijab in the college campus.
The college
had banned Hijab worn by Muslim girl students and the girls had resorted to the
legal process to claim their constitutional right enshrined in the Article 14
and 25 if the Indian Constitution.
But soon
the issue was politicised and took an ugly turn when students opposing Hijab
heckled a girl student who instinctively responded by shouting Allahu Akbar.
Her response was more the result of her fear and nervousness in the middle of
saffron flag weilding aggressive youth than of any ideological passion as she
was well aware of mob lynchings in the country. This created a flutter in the
media and Muskan Khan became popular overnight. The Muslim community read too
much into it.
There are
many Hindus who have defended the Muslim girls' right to wear Hijab to college
and also there are liberal Muslims who are of the opinion that the girls should
not have insisted on wearing Hijab at the cost of their bright .educational
career. So the issue was not Islam versus Hinduism. But soon some communal
minded Muslim clerics and political leaders communalised the issue and made it
to appear that the entire Hindu community was against Hijab or against the
Muslims.
First
Maulana Mahmood Madani of Jamiat Ulema Hind announced a reward of Rs one lakh
to the brave girl for the courage she demonstrated. Next Asaduddin Owaisi whose
brother and colleague have in past talked about eliminating the Hindus got an
election issue to polarise Hindus and Muslims of Uttar Pradesh. Even the
Organisation of Islamic Co-operation took up the issue.
But this
did not stop at that. The militant Islamic organisation of Afghanistan Taliban
with its ideological branches in Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in Pakistan jumped
into the controversy by praising Muskan Khan for her fight to protect her
cultural and religious values. The Taliban, the Al Qaida and the ISIS keep
looking out for social and religious issues to gain moral acceptability among
the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent particularly India. In their
ideological publications, these militant and terrorist organisations reportedly
advise their supporters to use social and religious issues of Muslims to
promote rebellious mentality among the Muslim youth and to carry out terrorist
acts as lone wolves. They also advise their cadre to infiltrate popular democratic
movements for just causes and turn them into a violent revolt. They succeeded
in this in Syria when they hijacked the Arab Spring and turned it into a civil
war.
Therefore,
by espousing the cause of Muskan Khan and of her classmates, Taliban have followed
the same strategy. By interfering in the internal matter of Muslims of India,
they have put the secular defenders of Muskan into an embarrassing position.
Now the political opponents of the secularists of India will call them the
friends of Taliban since both are on Muskan's side. They have made this well
thought out move to win the sympathy of the Muslims of India as the defenders
of religious rights of Muslims.
But Muslims
should remember that Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan have a very poor track
record of honouring and protecting the religious and cultural values of Muslims
particularly in the field of rights of girls and women.
The Taliban
are defending an Indian Muslim girl but they have deprived the girls and women
of Afghanistan of their legal and Sharia-enshrined rights. During their rule
from 1996 to 2001, they banned girls' education and restricted their movement.
Women and girls were allowed outside only in full covering Burqa with a Mahram. They
were not allowed to study in schools, colleges and universities or to work.
Malala
Yousufzai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
----
In 2009,
the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan captured power in the tribal area of Swat in
Pakistan and banned girls' education in the valley. They closed or destroyed
all the schools in the region.
Swat was a
very liberal society and before independence, the rulers of the region promoted
girls' education along with boy's education. The first boys' primary school was
opened there in 1922 and the first girls' school was opened in 1923. In later
periods, the Muslim rulers of Swat opened colleges for the girls and boys of
Swat. The result was that the area produced professionals and people of Swat
were known for their education all over Pakistan.
But in
2009, the Pakistani Taliban tried to reverse this trend and barred women from
going to school. When a teenage girl Malala protested against Taliban's ban on
girl’s education, they shot her with a gun on a bus. She survived and went on
to become the second Nobel Laureate of Pakistan.
Afghan Taliban
----
The Taliban
who are praising Muskan would not have allowed her to study in a college and
would not have allowed her to go to a college in a bike without a Mahram in a Hijab and would not allowed
her to attend class without a partition between female and male students if she
had been in Afghanistan.
In India,
she has the freedom to study, to dream of a bright career and to move freely
with her own choice of clothing. No one has forced the Hijab on her and no one
will gun her down if she someday decides to forego the Hijab.
Unlike the
Taliban, she and her classmates believe in peaceful and democratic means of
resolving issues. In India, she has the constitutional right to go to a court
of law and get justice. In Taliban's rule, the women can't go to the court and
get justice.
Teenage
girls in Afghanistan have been barred from going to schools and many girls
studying in colleges and universities have left college because of fear of
Taliban or because of restrictions.
Therefore,
instead of showing solidarity with Muskan or Indian women, the Taliban should
first give women and girls of Afghanistan their rights. Indian Muslims don't
consider them worth a thought.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/muskan-malala-taliban/d/126390