Burqa ban: What I choose to wear is my business’

Every morning before she leaves for her swanky Bandra office, Nafisa Khanum, 23, checks her mail, updates her Facebook status and tweets about her daily routine. Then the software engineer, who lives in a non-descript bylane in Byculla, zips off to work on her scooter, burqa firmly in place.

Defying the stereotype, but still adhering to tradition, young Muslims in the city are unapologetic about wearing their faith on their sleeves, the recent controversy about the burqa notwithstanding. “My religion is just one part of my identity. What I choose to wear is my business,” she says.

Unmindful of what the Shiv Sena has to say about their dress code, Muslim youth insist they are not affected by diktats or generalisations. “I don’t feel a sense of anger or victimisation with rabble rousers. They are entitled to their opinion as I am to mine,” says Mehmood Raza, a civil engineering student.

Ahmed Niyazi, an aspiring doctor, is glad that people are not judged by what they wear before being accepted as equal contributors in the social or professional sphere. “I hang out with a cosmopolitan group of friends and colleagues. And luckily, my life has been spared the embarrassment of generalisation,” he adds.

There are others who have chosen to shrug off the burqa in favour of a more mainstream dress code. “My parents were horrified when I told them that I did not want to wear a veil or a headscarf.

But they realised that it was not practical in my line of work,” says Sharifa Khatri, a chemical analyst at a leading pharmaceutical firm.