Zaira Wasim On The Ongoing Hijab Row: Women Are Being Harassed For Merely Carrying Out Religious Commitment

Dangal fame Zaira Wasim has reacted to the ongoing hijab row in Karnataka on Saturday, February 21. The former actress took to Instagram on February 19 to share a long note condemning the ban on hijab in Karnataka schools and colleges. She called the hijab an obligation to God and not a choice whilst mentioning that she 'resisted’ the entire system of women being harassed for carrying out a religious commitment.

For the unversed, the hijab row began in January this year when six female Muslim students at Government PU College in Karnataka were forbidden from entering their college wearing hijab. The girl’s protest against the college authorities snowballed into a state-wide issue and the matter is currently being heard in the Karnataka High Court.

In her post, Zaira said that she wears the hijab with 'gratitude’ and humility and wrote, “I, as a woman who wears the hijab, with gratitude and humility, resent and resist this entire system where women are being stopped and harassed for merely carrying out a religious commitment.”

She then said that systems that force Muslim women to choose between hijab and education, are unjust and added, “Stacking this bias against Muslim women and setting up systems where they should have to decide between education and hijab or to give up either is an absolute injustice. You’re attempting to compel them to make a very specific choice that feeds your agenda and then criticising them while they’re imprisoned in what you’ve constructed.”

The actress further said that this matter was taking place under the farce of empowerment. “On top of all this, building a façade that all this is being done in the name of empowerment is even worse when it is quite exactly the opposite of that. Sad.” Check out the post below:

Zaira Wasim made her debut with Aamir Khan’s Dangal and was last seen on the big screen in The Sky Is Pink. She then announced that she would be bidding adieu to movies as her Bollywood career was at odds with her faith.

For women in distress or facing harassment, help available in India at the following helpline numbers:

Central Social Welfare Board - Police Helpline: 1091/ 1291, (011) 23317004; Shakti Shalini- women's shelter: (011) 24373736/ 24373737; All India Women's Conference: 10921/ (011) 23389680; Joint Women's Programme: (011) 24619821; Sakshi- violence intervention center: (0124) 2562336/ 5018873; Nirmal Niketan (011) 27859158; JAGORI (011) 26692700; Nari Raksha Samiti: (011) 23973949; RAHI Recovering and Healing from Incest. A support centre for women survivors of child sexual abuse: (011) 26238466/ 26224042, 26227647.