Intolerance

There is practically no difference between a Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or Hindu,
fundamentalist. They are all primarily, ‘intolerant’. Standing next to the mortal remains of
Lata Mangeshkar Muslims have prayed to Allah, Hindus to God (Bhagwan), and Christians to
their almighty Father. Seeing Bollywood icon Shahrukh Khan lifting his hands to prayer and
blowing on to her body, some Hindu fundamentalists thought that he spat on to her face.
Social media went overboard in creating mayhem over the issue. I have noticed that in
India, even though many Muslims are aware of Hindu rituals and practices, most Hindus are
ignorant about the same among Muslims. Similarly in Bangladesh Hindus understand
Muslim rituals more than what Muslims know of Hindus.
To a large extent, intolerance stems from ignorance. I do not know who gained what by
defaming Shahrukh Khan, but what is evident, from the way people from all cultures stood
behind Shahrukh, is that all that is needed to put up a strong resistance to fundamentalist
Hindu forces are a few rational, secular Hindus.
An unnecessary controversy over the burqa has erupted in another part of the country,
Karnataka. A diktat has been issued instructing female students to not wear burkhas to
college. A group of students, donning saffron scarves have taken to the streets protesting
against the burqa. The Chief Minister preempts a communal riot and orders to close
schools and colleges for a few days. But schools and colleges cannot be perpetually closed.
The have to be re-opened some day or the other. Can riots not happen then? They surely
can. Frankly speaking if the mind and attitudes do not change riots will always be waiting to
happen. The hatred and fear for each other needs to be washed clean. The distance
between the Hindus and Muslims has not been bridged even after 75 years of the partition.
Pakistan has separated from India and has turned into a religious state. But India never
wanted to become a Pakistan. If it wanted, India could very well turn into Hindu state 75
years ago. The Indian constitution upholds secularism not religion. This country, with a
majority Hindu population is home to the second largest Muslim population in the world.
The laws of this country give equal rights to people from all religions, castes, languages,
creeds and cultures.
It is perfectly alright for an educational institution in a secular country to mandate secular
dress codes for its students. There is nothing wrong in such a message from the
school/college authority that states that religion is to be practiced within the confines of the
home. They need not be carried to the school or the college. Educational institutions, meant
for fostering knowledge are not influenced by religion or gender. It is education that can lift
people from the abyss of bigotry, baseness, conservativeness and superstitions into a
lighted world where the principles of individual freedom, free-thinking, humanism and
rationality based on science is valued highly. In that lighted world women do not feel pride
in their shackles of subjugation rather can break free of them, they do not perceive covering
themselves in a burqa as a matter of right but as a symbol of female persecution and cast
them away. Burkqas, niqab, hijabs have a singular aim of commodifying women as sex-

objects. The fact that women need to hide behind barred walls to prevent men who sexually
salivate on the sight of women – is not an honorable thought for both women as well as
men.
Twelve years ago a local newspaper had published an article of mine on the burqa. Some
fundamental Muslims massacred the office and burnt it down. They also burnt down shops
and businesses around it. Hindus also came down on the streets to build up a defense. Two
people died when police opened fire. A simple burqa can still cause fires to burn in this
state. Riots can still break out over the burqa.
A burqa and hijab can never be a woman’s choice. They have to be worn only when choices
are taken away. Just like political Islam, the burqa/hijab is also political today. Members of
the family force the woman to wear the burqa /hijab. It is a result of sustained
brainwashing from a tender age. Religious apparel like the burqa/hijab can never be a
person’s identity. Identities are created by capabilities and accomplishments. Iran made the
hijab compulsory for women. Women stood on the streets and threw away their hijabs in
protest. The women of Karnataka who still consider hijab as their identity need to strive
harder to find a more meaningful and respectable identity for themselves. I earnestly wish
and hope that they not be burdened with a religious apparel of a hijab or a burqa as their
identity.
When the right to education is violated on the pretext of a hijab, when someone forces a
woman out of a hijab as a precondition to education, I stand in favor of education even in a
hijab. At the same time when a woman is forced under a hijab I stand in favor of throwing
the hijab away. Personally I am against the hijab or the burqa. I believe, it is patriarchal
conspiracy that stands strong behind forcing women into wearing this. These pieces of
clothing are symbols of subjugation and insult to women. I hope women do soon realize
that a burqa is nothing different form the chastity belt of the dark ages that was used to
lock in the sexual organs of the female. If chastity belts are insulting why not the burqa?
Some say that the furor over the burqa in Karnataka is not spontaneous and that it is lent
support by political forces. This sounds very familiar to saying that riots do not happen, they
are rather made to happen. I have often heard that riots are manufactured before major
elections and they are almost always between Hindus and Muslims. Apparently they do
count for a few votes. However, small the number might be, they are important. I was also
thrown out of West Bengal for a few votes.
On a different note, it is heartening that riots do not happen. It would be frightening if they
did happen spontaneously. Then we would have surmised that Hindus and Muslims are
born enemies and can never live with each other in human habitation.
I believe that even the riots during the partition did not happen, they were made to happen.
Some Hindu fundamentalists are crying hoarse that India will be turned into a Hindu state,
all non-Hindus will be either killed or converted to Hindus or be forced to leave the country.
All masjids will be turned to temples.

I really do not know if such people are big in numbers. I know India as a secular state and
love it that way. I have confidence in the country. Is India changing? Will it change? I am
aware of the liberality of Hinduism as a religion. One is free to follow it or not to follow it. As
in Islam, Hinduism does not force one to following its practices. Hinduism doesn’t prescribe
to torture, kill, maim or hang people for not conforming. Superstitions are still there, even
though a lot has waned with time. But, India will be a country only for Hindus, any one
criticizing Hindus or Hindutva will be killed – are statements that are new to me. I have
criticized all religions and religious fundamentalism in order to uphold women’s rights and
equality for more than two decades now. My writings on Hinduism and religious
superstitions suppressing women’s rights have been published in Indian
newspapers/magazines and have also been appreciated. But today, as soon as I pose a
question like, “Why do men not observe Karva Chaut for the welfare of women?” millions of
Hindus hurl personal attacks and abuse on me demanding my expulsion from the country.
This is a new India. An India that I cannot imagine. I find their behaviour similar to Muslim
fundamentalists. Utterly intolerant.
I imagine India as a Hindu state. Will all fundamental and open-minded Hindus be able to
live peacefully in such a country? Will there be no discontent among the higher and lower
castes, no discrimination between men and women? A state only for Hindus! May be true!
Just the way Jews have carved a state for themselves, Hindus will also probably carve out
one for themselves.
I will have to leave a Hindu state too as I cannot become a Hindu. I am an atheist. Humanism
is my religion. I choose to stay with that. Gauri Lankesh was a humanist. She was not fit for a
Hindu state, neither am I.

Multiculturalism

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In our ‘women in secularism’ conference in Virginia, USA, some Western scholars blamed government of France for the banning of burqas. I do not understand why they think Muslim women like to wear burqas and it is government of France, not Islam, violates Muslim women’s human rights. My mother used to wear burqas. Once I wore one of her burqas only to feel how she feels when she wears that. It was hot and suffocating. I could not feel I was a human. I just felt I was a nobody. I felt I did not have any identity and I did not exist. There was no reason for my mother not to feel the same I felt. But my mother could not stop wearing burqas only because her misogynistic patriarchal society wanted her to wear burqas.

If burqa is not good for Western women, it is not good for Eastern women. If burqa is good for women, it should also be good for men. But men don’t wear burqas. Men wear burqas when they go to kill or commit crimes, because they need to hide their faces. Women are forced to wear it because they are women and because men may look at them and get sexually excited. Instead of blindfolding men, society is forcing women to wear burqas. Women have to suffer only because men can not control their sexual urges. How pathetic the whole purpose behind the burqa is!

Liberal women discussing about multiculturalism believe that ‘Western people are racist, they hate Muslims’. It can be true. Suppose it is true, or it is very true, but it is wrong to think that because the West is against Muslims, it is alright for Muslim women to wear burqas. Whatever happens, it is never alright for anyone to wear burqas. Wearing Burqas is not the ‘culture’ that we should respect. We must not accept misogyny in the name of culture. If Western women need to fight misogyny, Eastern women also need to fight misogyny. Misogyny is Muslim culture, so Muslims should have the right to practice misogyny — this idea is racist. In the name of fighting Western racism and so called Islamophobia liberal Westerners show their own hidden racism which is the most dangerous kind of racism.

You are against embroidered burqas

Men do not wear burqas, they force women to wear burqas. Not only that, they decide what kinds of burqas women should wear. They hate embroidered burqas.

Muslim women in Aligarh are increasingly using the traditional burqa as a fashion statement, embellishing it with designer touches. Burqas inspired by English gowns or those with Chinese collars, are doing brisk business. So are the modern abayas from Dubai beautified by laces, pipings and pintex design.

These changes may be redefining the garment – observers say some two-piece burqas have the chutzpah of cholis and the flirty feel of frocks – but the makeover, expectedly, hasn’t gone down well with the city’s maulanas. “Women are precious in Islam and the purdah was introduced to protect them. The new style of wearing fitting burqas, and adding studs and stones to them attracts attention and emboldens rapists,” says Mufti Shamun Qasmi, vice president, All India Imaam Council.

All India imam council’s Vice President claims burqas are for women’s protection, but fitting burqas or designer’s burqas attract rapists. It means, not really burqas, but the embroidery works on burqas make men’s penises erected and they can not control their desire to rape the persons hiding under embroidered burqas.

Muftis are allowed to issue fatwas. So the fatwa is, women should not wear nice looking burqas, they should wear plain burqas without embroidery designs.

These fatwabaz men are very busy thinking about women. But obviously their brains don’t think, their penises think. All they can think is how to fuck women. They dream of fucking women. They like embroidery design, so they have to fuck. At home they rape their wives. Their holy books say whenever men want to fuck their wives, wherever they are, whatever they do, they have to run to their husbands, so that husbands can fuck them. It is not sex, it is rape. These fatwabaz men think all men are like them, rape. They can not stop raping if they see women’s face or neck or arms or shoulders or legs, or even embroidered burqas.

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Asjad, a mufti from a madarssa adds, “This is a disturbing trend. Women should avoid wearing garments like these if they want to keep themselves safe.”

These misogynist muftis and maulanas want to be designers of burqas. They believe they are big well wishers of women folk. They believe they are able to keep women safe. The truth is, women would never be safe if these ignorant misogynists do not stop controlling women.

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Such views are vehemently opposed by many of the city’s women who find nothing wrong in the desire to look good despite being covered from head to toe. “In today’s world, when everyone is trying out new things, what is wrong if burqas, too, are becoming fashionable?” says Zainab, a college going girl, who often wears a trendy umbrella-style abaya on campus.

Dear modern women! If you want to try new things, why don’t you try to remove burqas, instead of making your burqas look beautiful. It is like you want to put colour on your shackles instead of breaking your shackles.

Shopkeepers in the city say that demand of the garments is high, despite what the orthodox voices may say. “Around 60% of my customers come looking for designer burqas,” says Rehaan, a burqa-seller at the city’s Amir Nisha market. “They are also viewed as a status symbol since many of the pieces feature intricate zarkan embroidery. Today, many women are working and they want to assert their empowerment through these designer abayas.”

I don’t think any real empowerment possible through burqas or designer burqas. I don’t find any difference between simple chain and colourful chain. The burqa is a symbol of oppression and slavery. If you don’t abolish oppressive patriarchal system and slavery against women, you are responsible to force half of humanity to be in prisons only because they lack penises in between their legs.

Burqa Is British School Uniform!

Burqa is now some British school uniform.

A number of the religious schools enforce uniform policies where such clothing is mandatory, even for girls as young as 11.
Under the dress code stipulated by the Madani Girls’ School in Tower Hamlets, East London, all pupils must wear a black burka and long black coat when outside.
The girls must also wear headscarves in the classroom and the school says on its website that its uniform rule “conforms to the Islamic Code of dressing and must be adhered to at all times”.
The Ayesha Siddiqa Girls School, in Southall, West London, insists its pupils wear a navy blue burka or Jilbab, a long, loose-fitting garment that does not cover the face, when walking between lessons, The Times reported.
According to the school’s website, it is “not willing to compromise on any issues regarding uniform”.

EGYPT NIQAB

Other private Islamic schools elsewhere in the country are thought to be imposing similar dress codes on their female pupils.
Birmingham Metropolitan College last week lifted its ban on Muslim face veils, hours before a demonstration by hundreds of students.
The college had been accused of discrimination when it ordered all students, staff and visitors to remove any face coverings so individuals are “easily identifiable at all times”.
The college’s decision divided political opinion, with David Cameron, the Prime Minister, backing the ban, while Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said he felt “uneasy” about the rules.
After the u-turn, Mr Cameron’s spokesman said: “We support schools in setting their own uniform guidelines.
“These are decisions that are rightly for schools to take. There is an important point here around head teachers and their leadership teams being able to take the decisions that are right for their schools and we support that.”

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said:

“This school is due to be inspected soon. We hope that the Government will ensure that it is not drifting away from its original promises and towards exclusivity. This is the danger with this free school system — promises are being made that are not worth the paper they’re printed on.”

If burqa gets accepted in some schools today, it will get accepted in more schools and then more institutions tomorrow. It will get accepted everywhere. It means misogyny will get officially accepted in your land. If you want to make your society sane, say no to burqa now.

Burqas for babies

To protect baby girls from being sexually exploited, the Saudi cleric, Sheikh Abdullah Daoud, has called parents to make their female children wear burqas.
Sheikh Abdullah Daoud believes burqas will protect baby girls because men can not control their sexual urges for babies who do not wear burqas. He asks parents to force their children to wear burqas. He definitely thinks it is better to torture babies with burqas than to control men’s desire to molest children.

baby-burka

Women have no right to live as human beings under Islam. Even a female baby does not have the right to enjoy her childhood. She has to hide her little body from fellow humans and have a constant fear of being molested.

Time for animals to feel sorry for humans.