"Why is a small cloth the biggest problem in this country?" Two Muslim women with two different choices tell Brut their views on the hijab controversy.
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00:00Hi, my name is Naila and I choose to wear the hijab.
00:03This is Asra and I choose not to wear the hijab.
00:30Why is a small cloth the biggest problem in this country?
00:40I had my personal reasons to discontinue wearing a hijab and after that I felt how a piece
00:46of cloth means different things to many different people and I don't think it is justified when
00:53someone thinks a certain way about me because of the way I choose to cover myself.
00:59There's always been a talk of women wearing hijab as oppressive.
01:03The moment you start talking and the moment some sensible words come out of your mouth,
01:08there's an astonishment, which I really personally like to see also on people's faces.
01:12Objections are raised with reasons like Muslim girls are conditioned in a way that compels
01:18them to follow certain things, but even if I'm conditioned in a culture, in a different
01:23way of living my life, you cannot say I don't have free will.
01:27In that case, no one has free will.
01:30Everything we do is based on the information we have.
01:32We are brought up in a culture, a tradition, a practice.
01:37In school, I have always been away from my identity as a Muslim.
01:41I'd be happy to hear it that people don't associate me with the identity of being a
01:46Muslim, but it still comes to you in several ways where your lunch is not shared, people
01:54don't like to sit next to you.
01:56I accepted that I cannot run away from this identity anymore, so now I'm going to flaunt it.
02:02When I stopped wearing it, of course, no questions came from my family, no questions came from
02:07the people who understood why I was wearing it in the first place.
02:10I would still be attached to a few misconceptions in society, only because I'm a Muslim woman.
02:16In India, I was this very modern Muslim woman who is not oppressed, and I was surprised
02:21to know that the moment I took off my hijab, for them, it was something of a very entertaining aspect.
02:27When me and my husband go out to shop things, so I'm talking straight to the shopkeeper
02:33and he wouldn't look at me, he would look at my husband and answer.
02:37It has been blown so much out of proportion, and of course, Islamophobia has fed a lot to it.
02:44Because I was always connected to my faith, in that particular moment, I felt safer,
02:53I felt more composed, once I started wearing the hijab.
02:56Suddenly, I was this uninvited person in a few groups.
03:00I had to over-explain myself to my own friends that, no, I was not forced to do it.
03:05No, my parents did not force me to do it.
03:07I still would have been questioned about my freedom and my identity if I was wearing one,
03:12without anyone realising that these are still in question, without a headscarf on my head.
03:19My faith was not dwindled, but I had a lot of questions.
03:23I was again exploring myself in a lot of ways.
03:25If it makes me stand out, and if people have been so kind to remind me time and again
03:30that I am not amongst them, so it's fine.
03:33But I'm not going to take it up.
03:42What is happening is completely uncalled for controversy.
03:45It is simply bullying Muslim women in the name of politics.
03:48If we were living in a country where every student was stripped of their identity,
03:55of their religious identity, then it wouldn't be a problem.
03:59But why is hijab the only problem?
04:01Students who are wearing a jina'i, who are wearing a tilak,
04:04who are wearing a thread around their neck,
04:07students who come to school in exams carrying some god or goddess or the other for luck.
04:16How can a simple attire on Muslim girls in school is going to harm anyone's dignity,
04:21is going to harm the academic sphere?
04:23It is a part of my identity.
04:25It is. And now when people are after you to take it off or to push it off you,
04:33I think it becomes even more important to you.
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