THE HIJAB; ISLAM WOMEN AND POLITICS OF CLOTHING 



"The Hijab” evokes a fascination to even the most side-tracked savant. Ever wondered what it is like, to be at crossroads?


Something wanted and unwanted.

Obligatory and preferential. Outlawed and accepted. The dilemma of "Who is to be heard?"

Feel, The Hijab, A collection of essays and anecdotes edited by P.K Yasser Arafath and G.Arunima.


The Hijab covers diverse subject matters and illustrates the lives of various women across the globe. Veiled and unveiled. Rather than being a standalone piece, it revolves around the theme of making the reader an omniscient and leaving up to the reader to decide for themselves, letting them have a stance of their own. 'Unbiased' in one word. The thought provoking page turner is a difficult read, it takes time for days to complete the reading.


The insightful book consists of 200 and so pages, divided into five parts. Each segment focuses on a specific cause and elucidates it further, making you a specialist in no less than three hours. Part one highlights "context and questions" elaborating on the Karnataka controversy and how it seizes the Muslim women's rights making them vindictive to both Muslim patriarchals and the saffron clads. It also discusses the hypocrisy of government laws and the central target often being Muslim girls.


 Next to it, the second part named "Reading the ban” focuses on the morals on acceptance of all sections of society as they are.

 After the two sections, it goes on to elucidating the " ethno, history, life writing" It debates on how the Abaya or purdah or burqa enabled social entanglement. Personally, part four is my favourite part as it casts a glance upon the different types of feminism and the pros and cons of it. And finally, the book closes with a story taken from the author “Noor Zaheer"


The writer opens the book with the controversy of hijab in educational sector and how potently it affects 'the uniformity system' and asks the sarcastic question or "is it the hijab clad women who are prohibited from their educational aspirations?" The controversy is then linked to the Hindutva ideologies and their unfulfilled hunger of vigour and wrath brought through various forms and one such form is the “hijab ban".


The central theme is acceptance of hijab, eradication of Islamophobia and the right practises of liberalism, alongside the proliferation of feminists with the attitude to encompass all section of societies.


Carrying the readers through a political, historical and geographical trauma, it lands you right inside your old social science class and you will begin to contemplate the way your teacher treated you, a hijabi and your friend, a non hijabi.


It gives a clear picture about the beginning of the social out casting of Muslim women. Like the root of most evils, this too is linked back to the Englishmen, white and privileged, treating the underprivileged with contempt and disdain.


If you love (monotonous) brainstorming through political and historical genres, then here is your thing.


And if you ask me in the end what would I benefit from it, I would not say answers but questions. "The Hijab" and the irony of it all.



Fathimathu Hiba Wahab

Wadeema