Former Bollywood actress Zaira Waseem has joined a growing list of public people who have spoken out about India’s hijab debate. The Dangal actor took to Instagram to express his displeasure at the unfairness of forcing a lady to choose between her education and her religious commitments.
Zaira highlighted that the hijab is more than a choice for Muslim women, emphasising that it is a religious commitment, in reference to Indian student Muskan Khan, who was assaulted by a right-wing Hindu organisation in India’s southern Karnataka state for wearing a burqa.
The Secret Superstar actor wrote, “The inherited notion of the hijab being a choice is an ill-informed one. It’s often either a construct of convenience or ignorance. Hijab isn’t a choice but an obligation in Islam.”
Zaira continued, “I, as a woman who wears the hijab with gratitude and humility, resent and resist this entire system where women are being stopped and harassed for merely carrying on a religious commitment.”
“Stacking this bias against Muslim women and putting up systems where they should have to pick between education and hijab or give up either is an extreme injustice,” Zaira said, elaborating on the inequity of forcing Muslim women to choose between education and hijab.
She went on to discuss how hypocritical it is to criticise the hijab in the name of women’s empowerment, adding, “Building a façade that this is all being done in the name of empowerment is even worse when it is actually the opposite of that.”
