'Hijab Isn't a Choice But an Obligation in Islam': Former Bollywood Actress Zaira Wasim on Hijab Row

12:03 GMT, 20 February 2022

Sangeeta Yadav

Amid the ongoing Hijab controversy in India, an advocate appearing for the Karnataka government at an Indian court on Friday claimed that wearing the Hijab is not an essential religious practice of the Muslim faith and preventing it does not violate the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. This statement has led to a social media uproar.

Sputnik

Former Bollywood actress Zaira Wasim took to social media reacting to the ongoing hijab row in India and said that wearing "Hijab isn't a choice but an obligation in Islam".

In January, an intense row erupted in the state of Karnataka after authorities at a women's pre-university college banned Muslim girls from entering their classrooms while wearing a hijab.

Hindu students then began wearing saffron shawls as a mark of protest against their Hijab-clad classmates. Karnataka State Chief Basavaraj Bommai shut down all schools and colleges for days and made an appeal "to maintain peace and harmony".

Commenting on the ongoing row, Wasim posted a long note in which she said that "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," Zaira said.

The 21-year-old actress, who was last seen in 'The Sky Is Pink', a Bollywood movie, and quit the entertainment world in 2019 to follow the spiritual path of Islam, shared that she too wears a hijab with gratitude and humility.

Taking a strong stance over the Karnataka government not permitting students to enter educational institutions wearing a hijab, Zaira said that the systems that force Muslim women to choose between hijabs and education are unjust.

"I resent and resist this entire system where women are being stopped and harassed for merely carrying out a religious commitment," she noted.

Actress Zaira Wasim on Hijab Row

Several celebs and public figures including Nobel laureate Malala Yousufzai, American model Bella Hadid, veteran Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar, actresses Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar, among others have also opened up about the ongoing hijab row that has sparked unrest in India's Karnataka state.

Bella Hadid on Saturday voiced her criticism of the "discriminatory" practices of France, India, Belgium and as well as Quebec, Canada to regulate the wearing of hijabs and other forms of religious clothing at educational institutions.

“It’s not your job to tell women what they should or shouldn’t wear, especially when it is pertaining to faith and safety,” Hadid wrote in an Instagram post, as she shared a newspaper clipping on the ban of hijabs at pre-university institutions in the Indian state of Karnataka.

Bella Hadid criticises India's hijab ban