A full hijab?!
Were those wearing hijabs covering their faces? Covering the hair is a
whole other thing, and likewise not revealing the contours of the body.
That goes if need be for any woman. And I am beyond radical. Someone should
write on purdah which was common with aristocratic and even common women.
vjp
On Thu, Feb 10, 2022 at 1:08 PM Roland Francis
wrote:
> I taught in a premier women's college in Bangalore for most of my teaching
> career.
>
> In my classroom, there were Hindu girls who wore their bindis, sacred ash,
> holy threads on their wrists etc. There were also Hindu girls in Western
> clothing who came out in all their ethnic beauty for Ethnic Day and the
> next day came to class in jeans and t-shirts.
>
> On Onam, the whole college campus was a sea of beautiful cream and gold
> saris and jasmine flowers and sandal paste tilaks. Even the non-Malyalis
> like myself looked forward to turning out in our saris and mundus and we
> would order in Onam Saadya and enjoy it in the department during lunch
> break.
>
> I have three beautiful Onam saris hanging in my wardrobe as reminders of
> those happy days of the past.
>
> It was the same during Sankranthi...the driveway and corridors would be
> decorated with beautiful rangolis. For Ugadi, one of my Department members,
> knowing my fondness for the traditional til- kadlai- jaggery- sugar candy
> mix, would make sure she brought an extra little packet of it for me.
>
> There were Muslim girls, many of them in jeans and kurtis / salwar-kameez
> etc and also many who wore the full hijab.
>
> Many of them who did not wear the hijab could be seen, especially during
> Ramzan namaaz, covering their heads with their dupattas when they heard
> the call to prayer...right in the middle of a lecture.
>
> It was no big deal.
>
> In fact, if and when I did happen to notice it while teaching, something
> in me felt a deep respect for those small signs of reverence for their
> prayer time that they showed in just covering their heads.
> None of their fellow students, and, as far as I know, none of us teachers
> were disturbed by it.
> It was just the thing they did and we respected that.
>
> In the same classroom, student nuns could be seen wearing either the sari
> or the habit and veil, and all of them wearing a crucifix.
> Christian students often wore a cross or rosary around their necks.
>
> On Ash Wednesday you could tell who the Catholics were by the cross of
> ashes on their foreheads.
>
> And ...they/ we all shared the same space, the same laughter, the same
> exam stress, the same enjoyment of fests, the same boredom during boring
> lectures and the same interest during good ones.
>
> They / we all dived enthusiastically into each others' lunch boxes to
> sample different cuisines from different backgrounds.
> They/ we sat at the same tables in the cafeteria and simply enjoyed being
> together.
> From the happy, raucous laughter and palpable sense of youthful joy, I
> doubt many / any were discussing religion.
>
> The food fests were the BEST.
> You would have the popular chaat stalls, the much sought after biryani
> counters, where mutton, chicken and veg biryani were available, the kaati
> roll counters were hugely popular too, as were the momo counters run by the
> sweet and gentle students from the North -East.
>
> With Hindus , Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Jains, and those who didn't
> specifically adhere to any religious belief or symbolism sharing the same
> benches, imbibing the same knowledge, while sporting their different
> traditional dresses and religious symbols (or no obvious symbol at all),
> our classrooms were mini melting-pots of Indian diversity.
> And it was WONDERFUL.
>
> Our teaching and non-teaching departments were made up of men and women
> who worked together as colleagues and team-mates, even as most of us wore
> some symbol of our personal religious beliefs, even if it were just a
> wedding ring on the left hand or a mangalsutra..
>
> So many non-Catholic and non-Christian lecturers and students would attend
> the Christian prayer service / Mass celebrated on campus for special
> occasions.
>
> And they attended by choice, and with great reverence, many even covering
> their heads with their dupattas/ saris while that was not and is not
> required even of those of us who were / are Christian.
> We simply respected each other.
>
> Why is all this becoming so important now...why are we marking each other
> by religion and caste etc?
>
> When did we stop respecting the fact that as Indians we are the same
> despite our differences of faith and ethnicity?
> When did we start taking offence more often than giving respect?
>
> I just posted this comment of mine on a public page which has carried a
> report on this ongoing, nonsensical non-issue of Muslim girls and their
> right to wear the headscarf/hijab to school.
> I copy-pasted it here.
>
> I expect to be trolled, on the other page, for this comment.
> And undoubtedly,
