Thread by @sanjukta

Burqa has no place in modern civilized world. Hijab is ok but not burqa. It's not rational or logical for human beings to walk around covering their face fully. I don't care if it's culture of religion or identity marker. Choice argument do not work because choice is conditioned.

My issue is that Hindutva gang is attacking Muslim identity. Making religion as the basis. Don't bring religion in school. Why the hell not? Every other school has saraswati vandana in prayer, every annual function start with Ganesh Vandana. Logic/rationality be the basis.

So I will support if burqa is completely banned everywhere. Like France did. But not if they ban hijab. The difference between hijab and burqa for me is the fine balance of logic and rationality at one hand and religious beliefs and personal choice on the other.

Both the arguments, "don't bring religion in school" and "there should be a uniform" are completely fake. If religion can be part of parliament, PMO, CMO then it be part of school. And uniform is not the end all be all of school life. Earlier days schools didn't have uniform.

So it's ok to wear a religious attire like hijab and pagdi unless it causes any problems for others. But I will use the logic rationality argument and stop both the burqa wearing Muslim women and the naked Jain Muni from going into public.

Whole point of being a liberal is to be a moderate, find balance, not take things to extreme. Here's a map:

Ban Burqa hijab religious attire: Hindu extreme.
Will never give up burqa hijab: Muslim extreme.
Hijab is ok, burqa/full face cover not ok: Liberals/moderates.

You cannot take the choice argument too far to the extreme. You can't objectively say wearing a single colour full body face cover that denies women a face (no.1 individual identity) is choice. Hijab is choice, sure. But not Burqa because it fails logic. It's a religious diktat.

My entire timeline since morning was triggered by this Tweet. I support this distinction between Hijab and Burqa. These women are wearing burqa. We must question why even in this age Muslim women in India are practicing this?

https://twitter.com/NikhilaHenry/status/1494195831905595394?t=ad5Lm-rGMlamD3lkGfvcCg&s=09