July 2009 
Year 15    No.142
Cover Story


Burkha vs bikini  

Do we or do we not consider women to be autonomous human beings?

BY RAZIA PATEL

That the firman by the French president on banishing the burkha from his country was greeted with howls of protest should come as no surprise. In fact, there is always some political calculation behind such comments. And both sides are equally adept at playing such games. If the burkha is totally unacceptable to one camp, it is an absolute religious obligation for the other. And both argue their case, for or against, with equal fervour. For Sarkozy, it is a symbol of women’s subjugation; for the other side, it is a symbol of piety.

In India, the battle about the burkha invariably acquires a communal colour: Muslims vs non-Muslims. When Sarkozy talks of the burkha as a symbol of slavery and argues for its ban, the intent again is to feed Islamophobia in Europe and the United States. For any serious discussion about ending women’s exploitation or suppression we must first accept that neither fanatic Muslims nor the consumerist West treats women as human beings. If it is the burkha here, it is topless dance clubs there. But those bent on promoting the "clash of civilisations" discourse are obviously not interested in viewing the issue from a gender perspective.

Besides, to talk of such bans in a democratic country is counterproductive. Where then does one find the scope or space for public debate as the route to social reform? But the most disturbing aspect of this attempt to push people into different camps on the basis of religion, region or nationality is that it robs them of their identity as human beings. Thus human beings become invisible and all that we perceive is their constructed identity. In doing so we effectively subvert the discourse on a woman as an autonomous human being entitled to make her own decisions.

If we do subscribe to the idea of a woman as an autonomous human being, we must be committed to creating a social environment within which it becomes possible for her to think for herself and make her own decisions. When people are forced into a ghettoised existence, where an entire community is viewed with suspicion, there is little scope for the women to make their own choices. While this is the larger social reality, fanatical elements within the community take full advantage of the situation.

A maulana said to me, "Women who do not wear the burkha will go to hell." I asked him whether he or Allah would decide who goes to hell: If this is a matter between Allah and Muslim women, why are you getting involved? The maulana was quick to add that he was not talking of compulsion or force. "Just as well," I responded, "You certainly should not be talking of compulsion or forcibly enforcing the wearing of the burkha. In any case, you have no choice in the matter in a democracy such as ours."

All I am trying to say is that we need to be simultaneously concerned about the empowerment of the Muslim community and Muslim women and this is only possible within a secular, democratic polity committed to the ideal of social justice.

Every attempt to impose the burkha in India has met with protests from Muslim women. Just as no one has the right to force a woman not to wear a burkha, no one has the right to force her to wear it. Born and brought up in a farming milieu, I was taught modesty in dress and conduct. But no one ever insisted that modesty necessarily meant donning a burkha. Based on my experience as an activist, I can say that a large majority of Muslim women in India hold the same view.

When the Lashkar-e-Jabbar wanted to impose the burkha on Kashmiri women, they protested strongly, ignoring the threat of the bullet. At one point the Muslim League attempted to enforce the burkha in Mumbai but there too Muslim women resisted it.

The burkha which has now become an international issue is nothing but the politics of milking a non-issue. In the process, the discourse is centred entirely round people’s religious identity, not their human identity. The common man or woman makes decisions about his or her life in his or her own way, basing them on their own lived experience. Issues of faith and belief are as much a part of the decision-making process as the realities of everyday existence. We must learn to respect and trust in their ability to think and make choices for themselves instead of behaving like autocrats.

Which brings us back to square one: Do we or do we not consider women to be autonomous human beings?

(Translated by Javed Anand.)

(Razia Patel is an academic and well-known social activist based in Pune.)


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