Thread by @kavita_krishnan

@ghazalawahab Ghazala, I’m sorry, I’m rather shocked at your position. You’re missing the Islamophobic wood for the patriarchal trees. Who has the power in this situation? It’s the principal & the Sangh not the Muslim parents. See my thread addressing various arguments & scenarios.

https://twitter.com/kavita_krishnan/status/1489456210617466887

@ghazalawahab The argument that hijab isn’t mandated by Islam is one to be had with anyone shaming Muslim women for NOT wearing it - not with Sanghis who are denying Muslim women education for wearing it. +

@ghazalawahab As for “who is teaching them to fight for this” - they can see the unfairness & Islamophobia in the ban, & the natural & just response is to resist it not to bow down before it.

@ghazalawahab Plus remember what Marjane Satrapi who resisted & resented the enforced hijab in Iran as a schoolgirl said on the hijab ban in France, now her home: if you forbid a teenager/young woman from something you’re guaranteeing they will do it as defiance & resistance.

@ghazalawahab Scores of Hindu women in my organisation in the rural & urban working class cover their heads in public. We NEVER tell them not to. Some of them, as they get involved in activism, decide they don’t want to do that any more.

@ghazalawahab Being forced by Sangh pressure on the college to remove their hijab doesn’t “liberate” Muslim women, it humiliates them. Left to themselves, each of them will get clarity later in life on why they are wearing the hijab - and decide whether or not they want to continue doing so.

@ghazalawahab Some may decide it’s a publicly visible Muslimness which they want to embrace defiantly in the face of hate. Others may decide that head scarf is in keeping with their interpretation of Islam.
Others may decide the opposite. Yet others may reject patriarchal pressure to wear it.

@ghazalawahab But that decision has to come from each of THEM! Their victory doesn’t lie in whether or not they wear a hijab. It lies in their being able to attend school in spite of Sanghi harassment. That’s the battle here.

@ghazalawahab Let me also add here that those dharm ke thekedars shaming and abusing Muslim women who choose NOT to wear the hijab are just as bad as the thekedars of the other dharm who are forcing them to choose between school & hijab.

@ghazalawahab If the girls were protesting forced hijab or denial of right to education for violating a “modest” dress code I’d be with them. Right now they’re protesting the denial of right to education because they choose to wear a hijab - and we must all be with them!