'Dangal' actor Zaira Wasim gives her view on hijab row
Amid the controversial hijab row raging in Karnataka, ‘Dangal’ actor Zaira Wasim, on Saturday (February 19), spoke out on Twitter at length about how “the inherited notion of hijab being a choice is an ill-informed one.”
The ‘Secret Superstar’ actor’s post comes in the wake of the Karnataka government submitting before the high court that hijab is not an essential religious practice of the Muslim faith and preventing it does not violate the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.
She said that it’s often either a construct of convenience or ignorance. “Hijab isn’t a choice but an obligation in Islam. Likewise, a woman who wears the hijab is fulfilling an obligation enjoined upon her by the God she loves and has submitted herself to,” said the actor, who had quit films in July 2019 claiming the profession “threatened” her relationship with her religion.
Further, the former actor added that she wears the hijab with gratitude and humility. And, she resented this entire system where the women are stopped and harassed for merely carrying out a religious commitment.
According to Wasim, with this bias against Muslim women, systems were being set up where the women had to decide between “education or hijab” or to give up either, which is an “absolute injustice”. Many celebrities like lyricist Javed Akhtar, Kamal Hasaan, Sonam Kapoor and many others have also spoken out against the hijab row.
Also read: How TN manages to keep its ‘head’ cool even under the hijab heat
— Zaira Wasim (@ZairaWasimmm) February 19, 2022
Wasim also attacked the critics for attempting to compel them to make a very specific choice that feeds their agenda. She added and then you “criticise them while they’re imprisoned in what you’ve constructed.”
“There is no other option to encourage them to choose differently. What is this if not a bias with people who confirm it acting in support of it? On top of all this, building a facade that all this is being done in the name of empowerment is even worse when it is quite exactly the opposite of that. Sad,” Zaira said in her long post.
A three-judge bench Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justices Krishna S Dixit and JM Khazi have been hearing the various petitions challenging the ban on hijab in educational institutions in the state.
Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi, appearing for the Karnataka government, had said that the state maintained the hijab does fall under the essential religious practice of Islam.
