Dangal fame actress Zaira Wasim took to social media and gave her view on the ongoing hijab row in Karnataka, via a long post.
Zaira in her Facebook post said, “The inherited notion of 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. Likewise, a woman who wears the hijab is fulfilling an obligation enjoined upon her by the God she loves and has submitted herself to. 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 out a religious commitment.”
Calling the ban on hijab in Karnataka schools unjust, Zaira added, “Stacking this bias against Muslim women and setting up systems where they should have to decide between education and hijab or to give up either is an absolute injustice. You’re attempting to compel them to make a very specific choice that feeds your agenda and then criticising them while they’re imprisoned in what you’ve constructed. There is no other option to encourage them to choose differently. What is this if not a bias with people who confirm it acting in support of it? On top of all this, building a facade that all this is being done in the name of empowerment is even worse when it is quite exactly the opposite of that. Sad.”
Currently under the Karnataka High Court, the Hijab row matter started after six female Muslim students started a protest against college authorities on January 1 for not being allowed in their college for wearing Hijab.
Zaira made her Bollywood debut with Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal at the age of 16. She further acted in Secret Superstar and The Sky is Pink, but then she opted out of Bollywood. She decided not to carry further her acting career citing that it didn’t go with her religious beliefs and faith.
