I am currently reading, rather very slowly, a book titled Snow authored by the Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk. Haven't read much of it - only the first hundred odd pages.
The book narrates the experience of a poet who goes to the distressed town of Kars, Turkey to report on the prevalent suicide epidemic among the young girls there. The primary reason being - the modernist and secular Turkish society bans the girls from wearing head scarves lest their names are struck off the roles. The head scarf has always been a symbol of the girl's dignity and her love for Islam. She considers the innocuous act of removing the head scarf demeaning to the Almighty. Stuck between the dilemma of being allowed to lead a normal life without her head scarf and being considered as a social outcast with her head scarf, most of them took the easy route of taking their lives themselves.
Given the uninteresting nature of our classes, it is always advised to carry some reading material to keep oneself occupied while the professors blabber away to glory. Snow has been my reading accompaniment for the last few days.
As I was walking the corridors of my college the other day with nothing but this book in my hand, I spot a beautiful petite female Muslim student strolling around dressed in a traditional salwar kameez with the head scarf on. For a moment, I was standing still wondering at the coincidence.
Pretty co-incidental and I am proud, albeit for a moment, about the liberalized education system that I reside in. Please for a moment, allow me to forget the Rajs and Nandus.
As I was walking the corridors of my college the other day with nothing but this book in my hand, I spot a beautiful petite female Muslim student strolling around dressed in a traditional salwar kameez with the head scarf on. For a moment, I was standing still wondering at the coincidence.
Pretty co-incidental and I am proud, albeit for a moment, about the liberalized education system that I reside in. Please for a moment, allow me to forget the Rajs and Nandus.
2 comments:
Countries like France and Turkey have a mockery of the principles of freedom.
It is sad to know Turkish girls are taking their lives over the head scarf. But why such a drastic response, I wonder? Isn't suicide is a far worse sin than going headscarf-less.........
The idea behind banning head-scarves is not to force girls to expose themselves - it's to prevent people from overtly displaying their religious identity.
Case in point - in your post, you said "I spot a beautiful petite female Muslim student strolling around dressed in a traditional salwar kameez with the head scarf on".
The problem with symbols like headscarves, turbans, large crosses, etc. is that it forces other people to identify the wearers of such symbols with the religions they represent. Because of the headscarf, you immediately identified the woman as Muslim. If she was not wearing it, you would have mentioned only "beautiful petite female student". And I think that would have been better.
Human beings are social animals, and they tend to identify themselves as part of societies. Identities, based on whatever criteria, lead to groups, groups to divisions. I think it would be best if there are as few divisions in the world as possible. And so, it would be best if there are as few criteria of social identity as possible. Religions tend to promote divisions, and they are more divisive when it is easy for people to identify themselves or others with particular religions. And religious symbols just exacerbate the matter.
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