[Reader-list] Fwd: In Valley, gunmen take to moral policing: ‘enforce hijab in college’

[Murali V]

This selective dementia is what I am up against as flaring one side
alone and defusing others is the norm on which we started our
independence.

Regards,
V Murali

On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 10:37 AM, Rohan DSouza<virtuallyme at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Rajen,
>
> Thanks for pointing this out. As I mentioned in my previous mail to Murali,
> the church also are not exactly apostles of tolerance. This article only
> proves that.
>
> I had in on one of my earlier mails to readerslist (last year) pointed out
> the cosying up of the church and the Sangh parivar in Mangalore (before the
> the church attacks), and thought aloud whether caste notions, cutting across
> religious boundaries, could have been a reason for this. It seems clear and
> also sad that when these different groups grounded in different religious
> persuasions get together it is on issues and platforms of fundamentalist
> thought patterns and approaches. The burkha in this case (both in Mangalore
> and Kashmir)  and also the recent judgement and reaction to section 377
> points out to such selective coming together.
>
> Regards,
> Rohan
>
> On Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 1:31 PM, Rajendra Bhat Uppinangadi <
> rajen786uppinangady at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear Rohan,
>>  the news post was so   long that perhaps you missed what is said at
>> Mangalore by the spokesperson in missionary colleges and schools, here it is
>> from the post,
>>
>>     "INTERESTINGLY, THE ban on Muslim students wearing burkas and head
>> scarves
>> has spread to Christian missionary colleges as well.___--_ Students of St.
>> Agnes
>> College, St. Anne’s College and St. Aloysius College in Mangalore speak
>> quietly of the authorities asking them to stop wearing burkas and
>> headscarves. Confirming this as official policy, Dr. (Sr.) Prem D’Souza
>> told
>> TEHELKA that while they respect all religions and faiths, they couldn’t
>> accept headscarves as an expression of faith or as a religious choice for
>> Muslim women. “We don’t allow this since there is no uniformity – some
>> women
>> wear the headscarf while others don’t. Ultimately, we want to ensure that
>> they do not face any discrimination. Wearing the scarf will single them
>> out,” explained Dr. D’Souza. When queried why nuns could continue to wear
>> habits and wimples and not fall foul of the headscarf ban, she said merely
>> that they belonged to a different category."
>>
>>   So there it is for all of us to see that each of the spokesperson have
>> different standards, but we selectively go about the issue.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Rajen.
>> ‘
>>>
>>>
>>> Rohan
>>>
>>> The full article:
>>>
>>> *‘I Asked Them To Give Me A Saffron Shawl’*
>>>
>>> *The ABVP and Bajrang Dal are aggressively enforcing a burka ban in
>>> colleges
>>> in Karnataka’s Dakshin Kannada district, reports**SANJANA*
>>>
>>> [image: image]*Scarf knot* The ban is forcing students in burkas to worry
>>> about their safety
>>> *Photos:* S RADHAKRISHNA
>>>
>>> IN JUNE this year, President Nicolas Sarkozy denounced the burka, the
>>> traditional women’s garment that Muslim women adopt to cover themselves
>>> from
>>> head to toe, calling it “a sign of subservience” which “would not be
>>> welcome
>>> in the French Republic.” Unmindful of protests from Muslims worldwide, the
>>> French National Assembly instituted a commission of inquiry the very next
>>> day to decide if women should be allowed to wear the burka publicly in
>>> France.
>>>
>>> More than 8,000 kilometres away, across continents and countries, Muslim
>>> women in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district have already been handed
>>> such
>>> a diktat. Women wearing burkas — or even headscarves for that matter —will
>>> not be allowed into college classrooms and campuses in the region, state
>>> the
>>> Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a students’ organisation and
>>> the
>>> youth wing of the Bajrang Dal. Both the ABVP and the Bajrang Dal are
>>> affiliated with the BJP, which is in power in the state. Though there is
>>> no
>>> legal backing for the ban, the decree has been enforced by government and
>>> government- aided colleges in the region. Since March 2009, the ban has
>>> applied universally to students and lecturers and has been aggressively
>>> enforced across colleges. Those daring to disobey have been suspended,
>>> asked
>>> to leave college and threatened with physical violence.
>>>
>>> Says Aysha Ashmin, an 18-year-old student from Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada
>>> district, “Initially, Muslim women were asked to remove their burkas
>>> before
>>> entering class rooms. A month later, this was extended slightly – no
>>> burkas
>>> in college campuses they said. So women hurriedly changed out of these
>>> either at the gate or in the ladies room as soon as we entered colleges.
>>> Now, they are asking us to remove our head scarves before entering
>>> classrooms.” This is a stricture that Aysha experienced first hand. Within
>>> days of enrolling in the BCom course at the Sri Venkataramana Swamy Degree
>>> College in Bantwal, Aysha stopped wearing her burka in classrooms. Her
>>> classmates insisted she do so, saying it would only single her out for
>>> attention since Muslim students wearing the burka were rare on campus. It
>>> didn’t take much persuasion, as she wanted to fit in and make friends in
>>> her
>>> new college. In any case, she told herself, she had her headscarf on. A
>>> few
>>> weeks later, the newly elected president of the college student’s union
>>> began targeting Aysha for wearing the headscarf. “The president and some
>>> other union members would follow me everywhere and ridicule me for wearing
>>> a
>>> headscarf. They claimed my headscarf was unnecessarily escalating tensions
>>> within the college, that if I insisted on wearing it, they would be forced
>>> to wear saffron shawls. When the jibes turned into physical attacks, I
>>> asked
>>> them to hand me the saffron shawl – I would wear that and my scarf,” said
>>> Aysha.
>>> Students who refused to wear the headscarves were asked to leave the class
>>>
>>> Days later, Aysha was summoned by the principal and asked to stop wearing
>>> the headscarf. With Aysha was Azramma, the only other Muslim student who
>>> wore one on campus. When both students refused to remove their scarves
>>> citing religious beliefs and personal discomfort within the slightly
>>> hostile
>>> coeducational environment, they were asked to return the next day with
>>> their
>>> parents. In the meeting on August 7, the girls and their parents were
>>> bluntly told that if they refused to comply with the ban, they would be
>>> suspended and subsequently removed from college. While Azramma acquiesced,
>>> Aysha did not relent. Her father, Mahmood P was shocked at the rude
>>> behaviour of the lecturers who asked his daughter to either chose religion
>>> or education, arguing that here was no space for both on campus. “My
>>> daughter was told that nobody would look at her even if she removed her
>>> scarf since there were far more beautiful girls on campus! And this was
>>> the
>>> least vulgar thing they said. Along with the principal, there were senior
>>> lecturers and heads of departments present at the meeting. Even though I
>>> asked them to give me the reason for suspension in writing, they turned us
>>> away,” says an exasperated Mahmood. Aysha’s suspension has meant a loss of
>>> the Rs 7,000 her family has paid as annual fees. Besides, if her appeals
>>> to
>>> Mangalore University’s Vice- Chancellor fail, she is likely to lose an
>>> academic year. “Admissions have closed everywhere but I will continue to
>>> fight. Education is my right, just as practising my faith is,” says a
>>> determined Aysha.
>>> ‘THE PRESIDENT AND UNION MEMBERS WOULD FOLLOW ME AND RIDICULE ME FOR
>>> WEARING
>>> A HEADSCARF’
>>> *AYSHA ASHMIN, **Student*
>>>
>>> There are several others who do not share Aysha’s ample courage. A
>>> lecturer
>>> at the same college, Mumtaz, chose to leave after having worked for 15
>>> days.
>>> Afraid even to reveal her last name, Mumtaz was accosted by a fellow
>>> lecturer for wearing the headscarf. “He asked me, ‘If we insist on
>>> following
>>> our religious practices within educational institutions, what would happen
>>> if Digambar Jains decided to do the same and turn up naked?’ We were
>>> apparently guilty of violating the social order,” says Mumtaz. A
>>> resignation
>>> letter she wrote spelling out these reasons was refused by the college
>>> management.
>>>
>>> When TEHELKA contacted Seetaram Mayya, the college principal, all he would
>>> admit to was pressure from various Hindutva organisations to enforce the
>>> ban
>>> against headscarves. Though there were no names of organizations or people
>>> forthcoming, Mayya admitted to the presence of members from these
>>> organisations within the college as well.
>>> [image: image]
>>>
>>> THE SITUATION in the Bantwal College resonates right across the district.
>>> On
>>> August 17, in Uppinangady, 55 kilometres from Mangalore, all 82 Muslim
>>> women
>>> enrolled into the Government Degree College there were upbraided for
>>> wearing
>>> headscarves. Days after Sujith KS, an ABVP member won the college student
>>> union elections, the Muslim women were summoned by Principal Vasanta
>>> Kumari
>>> and asked to stop wearing headscarves within classrooms. Ten students who
>>> steadfastly refused to do so were asked to leave the classrooms
>>> immediately.
>>> Two final year students — both boys — who intervened and defended the
>>> women’s religious rights to wear headscarves were suspended by the college
>>> principal. In the evening, when parents accompanied by a lawyer went to
>>> the
>>> principal’s house to discuss the matter, they were turned away. Mohammed
>>> Rafique, a local resident and activist with the People’s Front of India (a
>>> Muslim organization active in the area) told TEHELKA, “The principal
>>> turned
>>> us away, saying there was nothing she could do. We tried to tell her that
>>> Muslim women had attended the college wearing burkas for 25 years. It was
>>> of
>>> no use.”
>>> Mumtaz was accosted by a fellow lecturer for wearing the headscarf. She
>>> left
>>> after 15 days
>>>
>>> The following day, the situation in the college grew worse. Following an
>>> expression of fear by the college principal, police *bandobast* was
>>> arranged. The ten students continued to be locked out of their classes and
>>> the rest were made to remove their headscarves. Despite repeated attempts
>>> by
>>> TEHELKA, the college management refused to discuss the legality of their
>>> headscarf ban. A college official who refused to identify himself boasted,
>>> “It is an internal matter. We will handle it ourselves. We don’t have to
>>> explain anything to anybody.”
>>>
>>> INTERESTINGLY, THE ban on Muslim students wearing burkas and head scarves
>>> has spread to Christian missionary colleges as well. Students of St. Agnes
>>> College, St. Anne’s College and St. Aloysius College in Mangalore speak
>>> quietly of the authorities asking them to stop wearing burkas and
>>> headscarves. Confirming this as official policy, Dr. (Sr.) Prem D’Souza
>>> told
>>> TEHELKA that while they respect all religions and faiths, they couldn’t
>>> accept headscarves as an expression of faith or as a religious choice for
>>> Muslim women. “We don’t allow this since there is no uniformity – some
>>> women
>>> wear the headscarf while others don’t. Ultimately, we want to ensure that
>>> they do not face any discrimination. Wearing the scarf will single them
>>> out,” explained Dr. D’Souza. When queried why nuns could continue to wear
>>> habits and wimples and not fall foul of the headscarf ban, she said merely
>>> that they belonged to a different category.
>>> ‘WHY SHOULD MUSLIMS BE ALLOWED TO EXPRESS THEIR IDENTITY?’
>>> *SHAILESH SHETTY,*
>>> *ABVP representative*
>>>
>>> Since March 2009, there have been six incidents of colleges in Dakshin
>>> Kannada district banning headscarves and burkas – a number dismissed as
>>> insignificant by several people including ABVP student representative
>>> Shailesh Shetty. Shetty, the outgoing president of the student union at
>>> University College, Mangalore, claimed that in the next month every single
>>> college in the district would follow the same rule. “This is a programme
>>> that we have taken seriously. Any union that has AVBP representation will
>>> make sure that it will be an issue for the college authorities to address.
>>> Why should Muslims be allowed to express their identity? They should
>>> remember which country they are living in,” said Shetty, deadpan. If
>>> Shetty’s claims are anywhere close to the truth, the road ahead promises
>>> to
>>> be hard for Muslim women in the district’s colleges. The alternative — one
>>> that comes with the promise of further marginalisation — is to shift to
>>> colleges that are either run by Muslim educational trusts or ones that
>>> specialise in Islamic studies. Both spell disaster, says Hasnath Mansur,
>>> the
>>> former member of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission and principal
>>> of
>>> Abbas Khan college for women. “Why should women sacrifice education for
>>> what
>>> is a minor point? As long as they keep their heads covered — even with*
>>> dupattas* — they will comply with religious and cultural customs.”
>>>
>>> Eclipsed in the ongoing theatre of coercion is the debate raised in
>>> France’s
>>> parliament houses and in seminars organised by women’s rights
>>> organisations
>>> everywhere. Is a burka or a head scarf a symbol of oppression for Muslim
>>> women? Does freedom of choice really exist? Mansur minces no words: “The
>>> current move by the Hindutva forces clearly takes us outside the ambit of
>>> that discussion. This perverse move is aimed at denying women education
>>> and
>>> stigmatising an entire community. Why is the government not withdrawing
>>> aid
>>> and recognition from institutions that are fostering hatred and
>>> divisiveness?”
>>>
>>>
>>> Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:15:24 +0530
>>> > From: Murali V <murali.chalam at gmail.com>
>>> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Fwd: In Valley, gunmen take to moral
>>> >        policing: ‘enforce hijab in college’
>>> > To: anupam chakravartty <c.anupam at gmail.com>
>>> > Cc: sarai list <reader-list at sarai.net>
>>> > Message-ID:
>>> >        <4eab87870908280145u4b2e8eb2j8f455a457a949792 at mail.gmail.com>
>>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>>> >
>>> > You can atleast refer to any online references to such dress codes
>>> > imposings.
>>> >
>>> > Regards,
>>> > V Murali
>>> >
>>> >
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Rajen.
>>
>>
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