Iran hijab row: Islam needs reform from within, writes Pakistan journalist Arzoo Kazmi

Make it mandatory and they oppose it. Make it discretionary and they fight for it. This has been the relation of the hijab with Muslim women across the world. With more and more Islamic countries now choosing to see the burqa or the hijab as a personal choice rather than a religious compulsion, this attire is now continually embroiled in controversy.

The struggle for personal freedom has now reached the streets of Tehran, the capital of Iran. The women of the Islamic country are protesting for freedom from the hijab. After the Islamic revolution in the late 1970s, this is the biggest-ever revolt in the country wherein women want to wriggle free of mandatory Islamic practices.

The unrest against the hijab was triggered by the detention and custodial death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini.

In Iran, the practice of wearing the hijab began as a symbol of religious identity. It is now enforced as a government policy and supported by religious leaders. Women, however, want the practice to continue as a matter of choice, not a compulsion by law.

This comes amid a movement in Europe in which several countries have rejected wearing the attire. Some countries, like France, have banned the hijab completely, triggering a massive row in the Islamic world.

Let's take the instance of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. In a place like Lahore, the cultural center of the country and the hub of the entertainment industry, women walk in short skirts and wear deep-cut blouses. Here, wearing the hijab is a matter of personal choice. Granted, some women would be found wearing burqa or hijab in every Lahore market, but the percentage of such people is dismal.

You can imagine that in a country where even woman politicians wearing a hijab is a rare sight, political parties maintain extreme caution on the issue. They dare not speak against it or else their public support will erode. Interestingly, two out of the three wives of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who always carried the Islamic rosary, never wore the hijab. The same can be said about the elite class of Pakistan.

Pakistan witnesses Azadi March every year on Women's Day. It normally doesn't find support in the political spheres. With the Karnataka hijab controversy still fresh in the minds of the people, Pakistan's political establishment attempted to make it about the hijab. The suggestion, however, was dropped by the women's rights outfit. In the march that year, not more than one percent of women were seen wearing the hijab.

Karachi, once the fashion capital of pre-Independence India, is no different. Women wearing the hijab is a rarity. The fast-paced and modern lifestyle of the people of Karachi doesn't provide enough scope for the hijab.

In the Indian capital, New Delhi, the hijab isn't a common occurrence, not even in Muslim-dominated areas like the Jama Masjid. It is as uncommon as Hindus wearing tilak.

The rhetoric within the Muslim community across the subcontinent-- from the Durand line to the Arunachal Pradesh -- is laced with the importance of the hijab. When it comes to activism or political motives, everyone supports Hijab and Burkha. 

A college girl in Karnataka, who went to college in a Burkha, was filmed and the video was played by almost all the channels in the SAARC region. It was evident from the photos on her social media profiles that the girl herself did not wear the burqa every time she moved out of her house.

However, she started a controversy in which every Muslim ulema and every politician in India and Pakistan wanted to give their opinion.

From Nobel laureate Malala to Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri, everyone weighed in on the controversy -- to soak in some international limelight. The reality, however, was different.

Finally, one more development that has been largely ignored is that Saudi Arabia, the country which has been the flagbearer of the Islamic world for decades, has also started changing its social practices. With Bollywood actors performing in a country that has had an astringent ban on movies.

Saudi Arabia has now allowed women to drive their cars. Some more eights are slated to be offered in the near future, and rightly so. Islam badly needs reforms and they will have to come about from within the community.

During the 1979 Islamic revolution, the slogan of the protesters was “Estiqlal, Azadi, Jomhuri-ye Eslami” (Independence, Freedom, and the Islamic Republic). It has now changed to "Aazadi from Hijab". This shift signifies an impending and required change in Islamic society, not only in Iran but in other countries as well.   

My body, my right is going to be the slogan of the millennial girls in the subcontinent.

(Arzoo Kazmi is a Pakistani journalist based in Islamabad. She is known for a progressive outlook and comes from journalistic family background. An alumnus of the prestigious Punjab University, she has written numerous articles for renowned news outlets like Business Recorder, Pakistan times, Frontier Post, Pakistan Observer, Independent Urdu along with some Indian newspapers.)