More Muslim Women Are Wearing Hijab As Self-care In India’s Shrinking Public Spaces
New Age
Islam News Bureau
29 April
2023
• More Muslim Women Are Wearing
Hijab As Self-care In India’s Shrinking Public Spaces
• Three Men Harass, Abuse
Burqa-Clad Woman For Roaming With Hindu Man in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Held After Video Goes Viral
• Saudi Streamer Meshael MR
Advises Female Gamers To Show ‘Passion'
• Nida Manzoor’s Complicated
Muslim Women
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/muslim-wearing-hijab-india/d/129669
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More Muslim Women Are Wearing Hijab As Self-care In India’s Shrinking
Public Spaces
Representational image | File photo of students in hijab leaving after
not being allowed to attend class at a government women's college in Udupi |
PTI Photo
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PK Yasser Arafath
29 April, 2023
The Karnataka hijab controversy exemplifies a vicious and protracted
battle between male-centric religious nationalisms and Muslim women’s bodies
across regions. Re-hijabing and jilbabing defined the violent phase of Taliban
rule in Afghanistan in the 1980s and the Islamic Republic of Iran under
Ayatollah Khomeini, whereas de-hijabing—the tearing of women’s sartorial
markings—became a major political act in Iran under Reza Shah in the early
1920s.
Even though thousands of Muslim women challenged Iran’s imposition of
hijab in 1979, all of them were put down by doctrine and punishment. In the
late 1970s, Muslim women in Tehran were broadly divided into three categories:
non-Hijabi, “bad Hijabi,” and good Hijabi, with only the latter being allowed
to enter the theocratic state’s moral template. When it comes to open threats
against hijab-wearing women in Karnataka, only non-hijabi Muslim subjects are
considered as the uncontested Muslim subjects under Hindutva rule in the state.
All of these examples convey the same story: Muslim women’s bodies are still a
site of political and ideological contestation in the modern world.
When one considers the recent street protests in India that began with
Shaheen Bagh in Delhi where a huge number of Muslim women were active
participants, it is clear that they are no longer satisfied with being mere
bearers of community symbols and Islamic principles. Despite this, the liberal
intelligentsia, which is still locked in the out-of-dated category of
“Islamic/Muslim backwardness,” has disregarded their resurrected consciousness
as agents of resistance and collective secular resilience. Along with the
multiple mobilities in the past two decades, educated Muslim women’s increasing
familiarity with hijab discourses in contested cultural and ethnic sites across
the world also played a crucial role in making them believe in themselves as
agents of change, of self and others.
However, their sartorial assertion can only be fully explained along
with the shifts in the Indian social and political landscape in the last few years.
This period has witnessed a “great divide” in various interactive spaces.
Muslim women’s insistence on a new sartorial identity, thus, cannot also be
removed from the new interactional, emotional, material and political
circumstances that emerged out of this “great divide.” Living consciously in
the everydayness of an alienating cultural hegemony that pushes them away
through subterfuge, the headscarf is turning out to be a conduit for
solidarity, kinship, and self-care in India’s shrinking public spaces. Amina
Wadud, the eminent Muslim feminist scholar who challenged the male centric
interpretation of Islam, identified a reverse sartorial shift when Muslim women
became the target of ‘white American radicalism’ after the attack on the World
Trade Center.
Muslim Women were forced to hide their hijab, and their Muslim identity,
and Wadud sees such forced acts as the ‘erasure of being Muslim.’ A rising
number of progressives and a section of the Muslim intelligentsia agree that
the headscarf may be used to voice effective dissent in the increasingly
Islamophobic world, while another continues to make hard criticism of the
tradition of veiling (Niqab) and covering (Purdah). For the former, sartorial
assertion has become the most effective and non-violent conduit of dissent and
subversion in the wake of the all-encompassing cultural nationalisms across the
world. Therefore, the focal point of the girls in scarves in Karnataka or
elsewhere needs to be transferred from the framework of ‘right to education’ to
a more appropriate theoretical premise- the ‘right to dissent’—in the most
difficult political time in the history of independent India.
When bigotry has become the norm in the south Karnataka areas, as well
as many other regions of India, young Muslim women appear to perceive new
clothing choices as powerful instruments of dissent, confidence, and, maybe, a
corporeal shield against Hindutva male vigilantes with saffron shawls, a common
sight across the state of Karnataka, today. Even though the physical shield
makes them an easy target for the same group that attacks the Hijabi women by
howling and hooting at them, they continue to wear them. Thinking from these
news contexts, ‘religiosity and backwardness’ would look like an obsolete
framework to locate the increasing number of neo-hijabi women from amongst the
post-Mandal Muslim women in colleges and universities across India.
These need to be analysed along with the factors of assertion, autonomy,
social mobility, political consciousness, constitutional literacy, apart from
the elements of piety. Muslim women’s demand for a multicultural space, their
increasing involvement in the political landscape and the question of ‘what it
means to be a Muslim’ in a culturally contested India have been three major
catalysts in their rise of the neo-hijabi women for a few years now.
Source: theprint.in
https://theprint.in/pageturner/excerpt/more-muslim-women-are-wearing-hijab-as-selfcare-in-indias-shrinking-public-spaces/1545964/
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Three Men Harass, Abuse Burqa-Clad Woman For Roaming With Hindu Man in Aurangabad,
Maharashtra, Held After Video Goes Viral
Maharashtra: Screengrab
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April 27, 2023
Three men were detained by the police in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, for
harassing a Muslim woman wearing a hijab. The incident occurred on Monday in the
Makai Gate area and was captured on video, which has since gone viral.
The police have initiated the process to register a complaint at the
Begampura police station after the woman refused to do so herself.
According to the video, a group of youths accosted the woman and
snatched her mobile phone. The woman can be seen pleading with her harassers to
return her phone. The youths suspected that the woman was roaming with a Hindu
man and followed her, leading to the harassment. The woman had come to visit the
famous Bibi Ka Maqbara in Aurangabad when the incident occurred. The men were
heard hurling filthy expletives at her as well.
Police Action
The police identified the woman through the video and asked her to lodge
a complaint. However, she refused, and so the police have initiated the process
to register a suomotu complaint.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Deepak Girhe, stated that the police
are taking action and have detained the three men involved in the incident.
Importance of Inclusivity and Respect
This incident highlights the importance of promoting a culture of
inclusivity and respect in our communities. Everyone has the right to live
their lives freely without fear of harassment or discrimination based on their
religion, ethnicity, or gender.
It is crucial to create awareness and educate people about the
importance of respecting diversity and treating everyone with dignity and
kindness.
Source: freepressjournal.in
https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/maharashtra-3-men-harass-muslim-woman-in-chhatrapati-sambhaji-nagar-case-filed-after-video-goes-viral
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Saudi Streamer Meshael MR Advises Female Gamers To Show ‘Passion'
April 29, 2023
DUBAI: Meshael MR, who is one of Saudi Arabia’s leading female video
game streamers, has had to challenge stereotypes to climb to the top rung of a
hitherto male-dominated ladder.
Meshael, speaking to Arab News, said: “If I did something and succeeded
— even if I was dedicated to my work and worked hard for it — I would hear the
phrase, ‘The only reason you succeeded is because you’re a girl.’”
However, over the years, things have changed for the better in the
industry.
Meshael, who now has more than 160,000 followers on Twitch, added: “In
the last two years, the view has changed very much, and there have been many
other girls doing well in this industry.
“There are now official competitive electronic gaming teams for girls
that participate in worldwide and regional championships and events, and
they’ve managed to accomplish so much in so little time.”
Meshael says she likes to keep her work simple and not overthink the
process.
“Most of the time I just jump on the stream and let the chat decide what
they want me to do,” she said.
“Sometimes there will be a specific game that is trending, or maybe a
new game has just been released, depending on what people want during this
period.
“I am broadcasting daily now due to the large number of jobs. I
broadcast whenever I have the time to connect and spend time with my audience.”
Meshael recently starred in the Women’s Day MAC Cosmetics campaign,
alongside three other creatives from Saudi Arabia.
She said in a statement at the time: “I have had to stand out in an
industry that was heavily male dominated in the region and express my personal
views and opinions without any boundaries, which allowed me to build a strong
relationship with my female followers.
“Being part of this campaign represents a moment for me in which I can
reply to every single person who told me I couldn’t make it. I hope to inspire
other girls and women to similarly follow their dreams.”
Meshael adopts the “don’t think, just do” philosophy when it comes to
advising young women who want to become full-time streamers.
She added: “It will be a tough beginning, but it will definitely help
you to be more persistent when it comes to achieving your dreams.
“The most important thing is that you do something with passion and
love. And in the end, you will reach what you wish for and more if you let
passion lead you.”
Source: arabnews.com
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2294711/lifestyle
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Nida Manzoor’s Complicated Muslim Women
April 28, 2023
Three minutes into the first episode of “We Are Lady Parts,” a British
sitcom about an all-female, all-Muslim punk band that débuted in the spring of
2021, the band is introduced rehearsing a raucous anthem. “I’m gonna kill my
sister,” Saira, the tattooed, plaid-shirt-wearing lead singer and rhythm
guitarist, snarls. “She stole my eyeliner . . . and she’s been stretching out
my shoes with her big fucking feet.” Alongside Saira are the other members:
Bisma, the bass player, who wears a headwrap and a cowrie-shell necklace, and
Ayesha, who pounds the drums furiously, tossing luxuriant hair that’s typically
kept tucked under a headscarf. On the couch is Momtaz, the band’s manager,
rocking out in a midnight-blue Niqab. The song, “Ain’t No One Gonna Honour Kill
My Sister But Me,” is, like the best punk anthems, delivered straight and filled
with rage. Meanwhile, the show that it’s a part of—created by Nida Manzoor, a
thirty-three-year-old writer and director from London—is, like the best comedy,
sly and subversive. Securing a rare hundred-per-cent positive rating on Rotten
Tomatoes, “We Are Lady Parts” is as unexpected and as heady as the cloud of
vape smoke that wafts through Momtaz’s veil.
When “Lady Parts” débuted in Britain, on Channel 4, it was immediately
hailed as something new: a series that represented the experience of young
British Muslim women by acknowledging the should-be-obvious fact that there is
no single experience shared by young British Muslim women. Instead, there is a
multiplicity of experiences, which, in “Lady Parts,” is refracted through its
ensemble cast. There’s the experience of Saira, who, when she is not making
music, is butchering halal meat and, in dealing with her own trauma and loss,
trying to keep her devoted boyfriend at a distance. There’s that of Bisma, who
has a young daughter, a partner, and an aspiring career as a creator of
feminist graphic novels called “The Killing Period (Apocalypse Vag)”—“think
‘Handmaid's Tale’ meets ‘Rugrats,’ ” she says. There’s that of Ayesha, who, as
an Uber driver, has to deal with the prejudices of riders like the three young
men who ask her if her dad is forcing her to work. “Yeah, he said if I don’t
drive simple dicklesspissheads around he’s going to send me to Iraq to marry my
cousin,” she replies, before blasting them with heavy metal. The swaggering
Momtaz, who wheels and deals on behalf of the band in her veil, gown, and
gloves, and who also works in a fancy-lingerie shop selling bras that she
categorizes to one customer as “recreational, titillational, factual,
respectful, shag-me-kind or shag-me-hard,” repudiates the bigoted perceptions
of observant women held by some non-Muslim Brits, including the former Prime
Minister Boris Johnson, who once characterized women who choose to wear the
burqa as “looking like letterboxes.”
Then there is the newcomer to the band, Amina—a Ph.D. microbiology
student who dresses in demure cardigans and long skirts and pastel-hued hijabs,
and is on the lookout for a husband, but who is also persuaded to join the band
and let loose her hitherto repressed artistic self. Amina, the series’ central
character, is played with winning goofiness by Anjana Vasan, who recently won
an Olivier Award for her portrayal of Stella in “A Streetcar Named Desire” on
the West End stage. Amina’s perspective is often presented in voice-over, with
her—frankly hot—fantasies about potential romantic partners depicted in the
style of different movie genres. Thus, a stern-looking, black-clad suitor
flanked by his conservative parents is transformed in her imagination into a
shirtless Mesopotamian warlord from an action movie, while her awkward
encounters with the cool, charming Ahsan, the brother of Ayesha, are transposed
into black-and-white Hollywood mid-century glamour. “We Are Lady Parts”
presents a counternarrative to the ways in which young British Muslim women are
typically presented on television: either as patriarchy’s victims, or as
potential extremists. The show’s characters are joyful, liberated, confused,
glamorous, assertive, and buoyed by a powerful sisterhood. “We simply seek to
speak our truth before we are mangled by other people’s bullshit ideas of us,”
Saira says, of the band’s ethos, which also appears to be Nida Manzoor’s ruling
ethos in creating the show in the first place.
Manzoor was born in London and spent much of her youth in the city; she attended
University College London, where she studied politics, and was heading toward a
career in the law before turning to writing and directing while a student. As a
child, she was introduced to British comedy shows from the seventies and
eighties such as “Fawlty Towers” and “Blackadder,” while a touchstone of her
own generation was “Peep Show,” the long-running sitcom that débuted in 2003
and was co-created by Jesse Armstrong, latterly the writer and showrunner of
“Succession.” Also emerging during Manzoor’s childhood was comedy created by
British-Asian actors and writers, such as the award-winning sketch-comedy show
“Goodness Gracious Me.” A classic segment showed a rowdy group of friends
around a restaurant table on a Friday night “going for an English”: repeatedly
mispronouncing the waiter James’s name, asking for “the blandest thing on the
menu,” and ordering twenty-four plates of chips.
Source: newyorker.com
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/nida-manzoors-complicated-muslim-women
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/muslim-wearing-hijab-india/d/129669