Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 13: In a comment that may spark some controversy in the country, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader and Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday said “a Hijab-clad woman will become the prime minister of India one day.”
The comment was part of his remarks that the Muslim girls in the country would achieve great heights. The Muslim leader who had recently asked Pakistan not to interfere in India’s internal affairs by commenting on the current Hijab row in Karnataka, posted a 43-second video wherein to stress that the girls wearing hijab would achieve greater heights.
The Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad said in the video, “The women wearing hijab will become doctor, collector, magistrates, businesswomen and so on. I may not be alive to see this, but one day a woman wearing hijab will become the prime minister of this country,” Owaisi said.
Owaisi’s remarks have come in the wake of hijab controversy from Karnataka that has now spread to other parts of the country. Owaisi’s ‘Hijab-clad girl as future PM’ prediction comes days after he voiced his open support his open support to a Muslim girl student Muskan allegedly heckled by saffron scarf wearing boys in Mandya district of Karnataka.
The AIMIM MP, who had turned down Z security offered by the union home ministry after an attack on his convoy on the Delhi – Meerut highway, said if the lives of the girls like Muskan are under threat, then he would not mid to put his life in danger.
Owaisi’s “prediction” about a Muslim woman one day becoming the prime minister is likely to fetch adverse reactions from the right wing parties who had been constantly “warning” the Hindus about the alleged “designs” of the Muslims for “Islamisation” of India and take over the reins of the country as was during the Moghul period.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Governor and a BJP leader Arif Mohammad Khan has said hijab was not a part of Islam as turban was of Sikhism. The governor said hijab was mentioned seven times in Quran, but not in the connection of women’s dress code. It was in connection with ‘purdah’ which means that when you speak, you should have ‘purdah’ in between, Arif Mohammad Khan said.
The Kerala governor also said it was absurd that wearing of hijab was being equated with the wearing of a turban, which is an essential part of the Sikh religion. “Hijab is not a part of Islam. Hijab is mentioned seven times in Quran, but it is not in connection with the women’s dress code. It is in connection with ‘purdah’ which means that when you speak, you should have ‘purdah’ in between,” he said
“The argument that wearing a turban is allowed to the Sikhs but the Muslim girls are not being allowed to wear hijab inside the classroom is absurd. Turban is an essential part of the Sikh religion, however, the hijab is not mentioned as an essential part of Islam in the Quran,” he added.
Khan said the entire controversy was a conspiracy to derail the progress Muslim women have made. “I will tell you just one quote… A young girl, who was brought up in the household of the Prophet himself… she was the niece of the wife of the Holy Prophet. She was proverbially beautiful…She said I want people to see my beauty and see the grace of God in my beauty… And be thankful to God… This is how the women of the first generation (of Islam) behaved. That’s all I want to say,” the Governor said.
But a Congress MP, also from Kerala, TN Prathapan who had raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, had claimed that the garment of the Muslim women was like “mangalsutra for Hindus, the crucifix of the Christians and turbans for the Sikhs.”
He demanded the Union education minister’s intervention in the matter. The ‘hijab’ (scarf) row in Karnataka intensified as some students sought to defy the government order mandating the uniform style of clothes. The matter will now be heard in the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday.
“Girls are sitting outside classrooms and demanding their fundamental rights. For these girls, hijab is a part of their cultural and religious identity. It is like the mangalsutra for Hindus, crucifix for the Christians and turbans for the Sikhs,” Prathapan said during the Zero Hour.
He also said there was a tendency of some people in this country that if they see a Sikh with a turban protesting against the government, they will “call him a Khalistani.” If they see a person wearing a cross he will be “attacked”. “If they see a Muslim girl wearing hijab, they will stop them from getting education. Where are they taking our India? We cannot lose our diversity. I request the education minister to interfere in this issue to ensure the constitutional rights of these girls. That is real Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas,” he said.