A CPI(M) state secretariat member kicked up a hijab row in Kerala; Samastha leader felt those without the traditional headscarves are of questionable character.
V P Suhara
The CPI(M) did not see it coming; nor did Mukkam Umar Faizi, the state secretary of Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama.
A remark by one of its State Committee members, K Anil Kumar, has put the CPI(M) in a spot, though the party was quick to distance itself from its leader’s statement. Kumar claimed that the Marxist party was responsible for Muslim girls in the Malappuram district abandoning their traditional headscarves, or hijab.
Kumar attempted to claim credit for his party for the “progressive” move: It boomeranged and snowballed into a controversy.
Taking umbrage at the CPI(M) leader’s statement, Faizi declared that women who did not cover their heads were of questionable character.
Faizi’s statement did not go down well with the progressive minds in the Muslim community. VP Zuhra was one among them.
Social activist, writer and president of NISA — a Kozhikode-based progressive Muslim women’s forum — Zuhra chose a Kudumbasree event to hit back at Faizi’s statement.
Kudumbasree is the Kerala government’s poverty eradication and women empowerment programme.
Addressing a gathering of close to 200 Kudumbasree members at the launch of Thirike Schoolil (Back to School) at the Government High School at Nallalam in Kozhikode on Sunday, 8 October, Zuhra condemned Faizi’s statement saying that to cover or not cover the head was a woman’s choice and questioning the character of a woman over her choice was misogynistic.
“I grew up wearing the hijab. But now I feel this is the time to give it up. Even if I remove my hijab, I will remain Zuhra,” she said and removed the pallu — or the loose end of a saree — draped over her head like a hijab.
The response to Zuhra’s act was immediate. It reportedly made the president of the school’s Parent-Teachers’ Association, Shahul Hameed, fly off the handle. He rushed into the hall and showered abuse on her.
Zuhra complained to the Nallalam police against Hameed for insulting her. The police, however, are going slow. Their stand is to file a case after a preliminary investigation.
It has been alleged that the Chief Minister’s Office instructed the police to go slow on the complaint. The CPI(M) is against further antagonising the powerful Samastha and other leading Muslim organisations as the Lok Sabha elections are due next year. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan holds the Home portfolio in the state.
Zuhra’s act, however, found resonance with several Muslim women. They took to social media, posted their photographs without the hijab, and identified themselves as women of “questionable character”.
The CPI(M) is finding itself on a sticky wicket after progressive women from the Muslim community asserted their right to abjure the hijab norm.
CPI(M)’s Anil Kumar kicked up the controversy over sartorial choice at a seminar hosted by an atheist group in the Muslim-dominated Malappuram district on 3 October.
Addressing the event, Kumar said the CPI(M)’s initiatives in the education sector have led him to believe that the “new women” of the district and girls will say no to thattam, the Malayalam word for hijab.
He also termed the change in mindset a part of the community’s collective progress after coming into contact with the CPI(M).
Muslim leaders denounced Kumar’s statement even as video clips of his speech went viral on social media. The community leaders sought to know the CPI(M)’s stand.
Many in the party felt that Kumar, a familiar face in Malayalam prime-time television news debates, had opened a Pandora’s box, and it would eclipse the party’s efforts to make inroads into the Muslim community.
Interestingly, the party’s Muslim faces, Lok Sabha member AM Ariff and MLA KT Jaleel pooh-poohed Kumar’s statement, terming it an offshoot of ignorance.
In the face of stiff opposition from Muslim organisations and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), CPI(M) went into firefighting mode. The party said wearing a hijab is a personal choice and the organisation has nothing against Islamic dress code and practices.
Though the CPI(M) disowned Kumar’s statement, it became a topic of hot debate, especially after Faizi’s “women of questionable character remark”. He also exhorted the community not to allow the women to go awry.
His statement triggered a verbal duel between the orthodox and progressive minds in the community, leaving the CPI(M) caught between the devil and the deep sea.
The party needs the support of both orthodox and progressive Muslims in the elections. At media conferences, CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan has been dodging questions on Kumar’s statement. However, he reminded all that the CPI(M) had joined the secular and democratic forces in criticising the Karnataka High Court’s 2022 decision banning girl students from wearing the hijab.
“Nobody can insist on what another individual should wear. It is the inalienable right of individuals to choose what they should wear, eat, or believe in. Such choices are not a matter to be arbitrated in courts,” Govindan said.
However, the IUML felt that Kumar’s statement reflected the CPI(M) ‘s “anti-religion agenda”.
IUML state general secretary PMA Salam said that “the CPI(M) has strived all these years to make Muslim girls give up the hijab”.
He asserted that the CPI(M)’s mission in Malappuram did not succeed as the new generation of girls are wearing the hijab. In Kerala, the CPI(M) has been vocal on the Muslim community’s concerns over the Uniform Civil Code and Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
During the previous Assembly election, thousands of Muslims voted for the CPI(M), ignoring the IUML diktat, helping Vijayan to return to power for a second consecutive time.
IUML national general secretary PK Kunhalikutty told South First that Muslim women in Malappuram are making many social and educational advancements. For them, the hijab is not something discrediting their achieved empowerment. He felt the controversy unnecessary.
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