Hijab Ban in Karnataka

Today the High Court in Karnataka state of India upheld the Hijab Ban.

The court said that it is not an essential religious practice and I applaud them. For too long extremist branch of Islam has been allowed to carry on at the expense of moderate Muslims. It is true, Hijab is NOT an essential religious practice. I am not a practicing Muslim as I decided it is not a religion for me, I prefer to think for myself, but I do remember being taught by my own moderate parents that Islam encourages modest clothing. I don’t know why modest now means that women can only dress like this. It is extremist branch of Islam that promotes this.

Here in the West, it is used as a tool to segregate women from mainstream society. Girls in school wear this hijab and they are segregated by this outfit. This “us” vs “them” mentality is promoted. It is nothing but a way to keep women under the thumb and I think the court in Karnataka has made the right decision. It is essential to stand up to extremism and the branch that promotes this outfit for women is not the tolerant branch. It is not the branch that will want to co-exist.

There are countless Muslim women who fight for equality because no matter what is said, Islam does NOT treat women as an equal, when people here in the West fight for this outfit, they are fighting for the same philosopy as the Taliban and the Mullahs in Iran. When someone thinks that they need to wear this in order to be “pure”, I am afraid, I think they are going towards the path of extremism.

In Pakistan, I was treated like a second class citizen, I got out, but I know many women and girls who are still there, treated like second class citizens by the law and they use religion as an excuse to justify the poor treatment: Be it in divorce laws, education, employment, domestic abuse, honour killings and much much more.

I applaud the court in India for making this decision. Nothing is stopping these women from getting their education. It is their own choice to segregate themselves by wearing this that is stopping them from assimilating into mainstream society. They are the ones who are building walls around themselves, not the court or society.