Veil, burqa comes at a price for some Indian women
11 Jan 2007 06:21:17 GMT Source: Reuters
By Kamil Zaheer NEW DELHI, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Nishat Hussain's green eyes flash angrily as she talks about the day years ago when she stopped wearing the burqa because of the discrimination and hostility she faced for putting on the head-to-toe garment. "Once I was stopped from entering a hospital by a peon because I was wearing the burqa while other women who were not dressed like me were allowed in," said the 53-year-old Muslim woman from the western Indian city of Jaipur. Things have not changed today for Muslim women who wear headscarves or burqas in officially secular India, according to Hussain, a social worker with the National Muslim Women's Welfare Society who attended a conference of Muslim women's groups in New Delhi this week. "From A to Z, whether dealing with schools or the administration or hospitals, there is hostility for women wearing the burqa and the hijab," said Hussain, dressed in a salwar-kameez (loose pyjamas and kurta) with her head uncovered. In November, a federal government-appointed panel said women wearing the head-covering hijab found it difficult to get jobs while Muslim women dressed in a burqa complained of rude treatment at markets, hospitals, schools and on public transport. Muslims make up around 13 percent of mainly Hindu India's 1 billion population and are the country's poorest religious community. They lag behind in literacy and in higher education, with the gap wider for Muslim women, according to the panel. Activists say that prejudice against the community has risen since the rise of Hindu nationalism in the 1990s, the September 11 attacks and the spread of global Islamist militancy, which has led to attacks in Indian cities as well. This has added to the traditional prejudice Muslims face, including suspicions among some majority Hindus that they are secretly supportive of Pakistan, India's Islamic neighbour. Muslims are free to practise their religion openly and India's ceremonial president is a Muslim. But many in the world's third-largest Islamic community complain of discrimination because of their names or dress. Like 23-year-old Afreen Mirza, who stitches and sells mobile phone covers in Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat. Mirza's husband is in jail and she earns a living for her two small children by selling the phone covers to shops and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). "The NGOs sometimes ask me to take off the hijab if I come into their offices. They are uneasy with me wearing it, saying I could get them in trouble," said Mirza, her hair and neck covered by a black hijab, speaking on the sidelines of the conference. "When I wear the full burqa in Ahmedabad, some people seem to think I am a terrorist or will cause trouble," Mirza said, a sad smile flitting across her face. The government report on Muslims said many in the community felt the need to prove they were not "terrorists" or "anti-national". Activists say that while they are opposed to women being forced to wear a headscarf or burqa, it is a tough call for Muslim women who do so of their own free will. "There is a stereotype about Muslim women and the hijab. But those who wear it voluntarily know their mind," Zakia Jowher of Action Aid International, said. "But wearing it will bring some difficulties.
