India School Hijab Ban: Majority of Hindu Women Also Cover Their Heads

[Riaz Haq]

Is the ban on hijab in colleges in the southern Indian state of Karnataka motivated by Islamophobia? Is it part of the ruling BJP party's campaign against 200 million Indian Muslims? Results of a Pew Survey help clarify the answer to these questions: Six in ten Indian women, including Hindu women, cover their heads. 

Head Covering By Religions in India. Source: Pew

The survey found that a majority of Hindu women (59%), and roughly equal shares of Muslim (89%) and Sikh women (86%), wear head coverings when they go out of their homes. It was conducted in 2019-20, well before the current hijab row in Karnataka, and republished recently. 

Regional Differences in Head Coverings in India. Source: Pew

The Indian practice of head covering is much more common in the North than in the South. It is especially common in the largely Hindi-speaking regions in the Northern, Central and Eastern parts of the country. In the states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, roughly nine-in-ten women say they wear head coverings in public. 

In the South, 83% of Muslim women say they cover their heads, compared with 22% of Hindu women. In the Northern region, meanwhile, roughly equal shares of Muslim (85%) and Hindu (82%) women say they cover their heads in public.

Hijab-wearing Muslim Girls Refused Entry in Karnataka Schools. Sour...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu Nationalist BJP party's entire politics revolves around hatred of Muslims and other religious minorities in India. The BJP currently rules Karnataka which has seen a rise in activities of Hindutva groups and the targeting of the state’s religious minorities, mainly Muslims and Christians.  

“We have been wearing hijab for years without any problem but now, the issue has been suddenly taken up by the BJP and Hindutva groups to rake up communal tensions,” Kaneez Fatima, a Congress member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, told Al Jazeera, referring to the Hindu far-right groups.

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[Riaz Haq]

BELLA HADID STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH #INDIAN #MUSLIM #WOMEN WHO CHOOSE TO WEAR THE #HIJAB. The supermodel, 25, shared a series of posts to her Instagram on Thursday 17 February detailing some of the struggles affecting Muslim women across the world today.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/bella-hadid-muslim-h...

https://twitter.com/haqsmusings/status/1495416446439944192?s=20&...

[Riaz Haq]

#India court upholds a ban on #hijab in #schools and #colleges. Violence and hate speech against Muslims have increased under Prime Minister Narendra #Modi's governing #Hindu nationalist party, which also governs #Karnataka state. #IslamophobiaInIndia https://www.npr.org/2022/03/15/1086602745/india-court-upholds-ban-o...

NEW DELHI — An Indian court Tuesday upheld a ban on wearing hijab in class in the southern state of Karnataka, saying the Muslim headscarf is not an essential religious practice of Islam.

The high court in Karnataka state delivered the verdict after considering petitions filed by Muslim students challenging a government ban on hijabs that some schools and colleges have implemented in the last two months.

The dispute began in January when a government-run school in Karnataka's Udupi district barred students wearing hijabs from entering classrooms, triggering protests by Muslims who said they were being deprived of their fundamental rights to education and religion. That led to counterprotests by Hindu students wearing saffron shawls, a color closely associated with that religion and favored by Hindu nationalists.


More schools in the state followed with similar bans and the state's top court disallowed students from wearing hijab and any religious clothing pending a verdict.

Ahead of the verdict, the Karnataka government banned large gatherings for a week in state capital Bengaluru "to maintain public peace and order" and declared a holiday Tuesday in schools and colleges in Udupi.

The hijab is worn by many Muslim women to maintain modesty or as a religious symbol, often seen as not just a bit of clothing but something mandated by their faith.

Hijab restrictions have surfaced elsewhere, including France, which in 2004 banned them in schools. But in India, where Muslims make up 14% of the country's 1.4 billion people, the hijab has historically been neither prohibited nor limited in public spheres. Women donning the headscarf is common across the country, which has religious freedom enshrined in its national charter with the secular state as a cornerstone.

Some rights activists have voiced concerns that the ban could increase Islamophobia. Violence and hate speech against Muslims have increased under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's governing Hindu nationalist party, which also governs Karnataka state.

[Riaz Haq]

Religious Divide in #Bangalore #Karnataka will destroy #India's #tech industry, says #Indian corporate leader Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. She was referring to reports of #Muslim vendors being kept out of temple towns and festivals. #BJP #Hindutva #Islamophobia https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/biocon-chief-kiran-mazumdar-s...

Bengaluru: A prominent voice from the corporate sector and executive chairperson of Biocon Ltd, Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, has raised a red flag over the “growing religious divide” in Karnataka and expressed fear that it may affect the IT-BT sector too.

In a series of tweets, she raised a red flag over hardline Hindutva groups to keep out Muslim traders from temple festivals in Karnataka and urged Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to resolve the “growing religious divide” in the state and warned that the country’s “global leadership” in tech and biotech was at stake.

“Karnataka has always forged inclusive economic development and we must not allow such communal exclusion — if IT/BT became communal it would destroy our global leadership,” wrote Shaw, who heads Asia’s leading biopharmaceuticals enterprise,” she tweeted, tagging Bommai and added: “Please resolve this growing religious divide.”

In a subsequent tweet, she posted: “Our CM is a very progressive leader. I am sure he will resolve this issue soon.”

She was referring to reports on how Muslim vendors were being kept out of several temple towns and festivals. Several temple committees organising the festivals, especially in the communally sensitive coastal districts, have been obeying the warning issued by the hardline Hindu groups. Some, however, have expressed dismay over the curbs and say these would hit long-standing social relations. The curbs came after Muslim groups organised a bandh against the hijab ban ruling by the Karnataka High Court.

However, the state government, in an official statement in the state legislature, said the restrictions on non-Hindus conducting business within the premises of temples is as per a rule introduced in 2002 under the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act, 1997. This rule, many vendors say, has now been weaponised to keep them out of business.

[Riaz Haq]

#India’s #SiliconValley risks falling into the swamp of hatred. #Muslim girls #HijabBan has morphed into brazen disregard for the dignity & civil & #economic rights of #Karnataka’s #Muslims, who make up 12 percent of the state’s population. #Bangalore https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/07/bengaluru-karnat...

More than any other city, Bengaluru — with its cherry-blossom-lined avenues, giant technology parks and self-made billionaires — has been India’s response to the postcards of poverty that have often defined Western media’s reductionist portrayal of the country.

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India sells billions of dollars of halal meat globally and is the second-largest exporter of halal foods to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation countries. Many of the country’s giant meat sellers are owned and run by Hindus. It is also routine for multinationals selling other consumer goods — including one run by a saffron-robed Hindu guru — to have halal certification. Yet it is two successful businesses unrelated to meat and founded by Muslims — iD Fresh Food and pharmaceutical corporation Himalaya — that have been assaulted with persistent fake news about the use of cow bones or bovine extracts in their products.


While big businesses might be able to ride out the wave of hate, small Muslim traders are more vulnerable. In Karnataka, an assortment of far-right Hindu groups are intimidating consumers into buying meat only from Hindu shopkeepers, pushing for the closure of halal meat shops and, in some instances, using violence and abuse to force their point. Social media has been weaponized to build toxic and fake narratives about halal slaughter practices, including false claims that it involves spitting into the meat.

Mohandas Pai, who served on the board of IT company Infosys — one of India’s most famous corporate brands, headquartered in Bengaluru — told me that these are isolated “local issues” that shouldn’t be globalized.

Yet sanction for these poisonous debates came from several leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka. A government circular, since put on pause, mandated the stunning of animals before slaughter, in a move that would possibly make meat non-halal.

Pai, who is an investor in Licious — another major meat supplier that also sells products with halal certification — says that while hooliganism is unacceptable, the larger issue is one of transparency of information for the consumer. However, that seems almost esoteric at a time when, for an entire community, the issue is about the right to earn a livelihood with dignity.

A key BJP functionary in Karnataka has equated the sale of halal meat to “economic jihad” that benefits Muslim sellers. But data shows that a majority of Indian Muslims continue to work in the informal economy or unorganized sector: Only 28 percent of Muslims are salaried employees, compared with 46 percent of Hindus.

It is these citizens — street vendors, cart-pullers, small shopkeepers, butchers and handymen — who are now under attack. The latest outlandish demand targeting Muslims? To not buy mangoes from Muslim fruit sellers.


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The copycat targeting of economic activity that can be linked to Islam. In another incident, a TV reporter (employed by a channel reprimanded by India’s Supreme Court for vilifying Muslims on a show) barged into a store of the major food brand Haldiram’s, demanding to know why the packaging for savory snacks had text in Urdu. Urdu, recognized in the constitution, is one of 15 languages used on Indian currency notes.

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There’s no point trumpeting India’s improved rankings by the World Bank on ease of doing business if we can’t create a secure environment and level playing field for our own people. And we shouldn’t complain the next time headlines focus on our sectarian strife rather than our homegrown Silicon Valley.

[Riaz Haq]

#US Monitoring Rise in Rights Abuses in #India by some gov’t, police & prison officials, #Blinken said today in a joint press briefing with Defense Sec Lloyd Austin, #Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar, India's Defense Minister Rajnath Singh. | World News

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-04-11/u-s-monitorin...


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was monitoring what he described as a rise in human rights abuses in India by some officials, in a rare direct rebuke by Washington of the Asian nation's rights record.

"We regularly engage with our Indian partners on these shared values (of human rights) and to that end, we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials," Blinken said on Monday in a joint press briefing with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and India's Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.

Blinken did not elaborate. Singh and Jaishankar, who spoke after Blinken at the briefing, did not comment on the human rights issue.

Blinken's remarks came days after U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar questioned the alleged reluctance of the U.S. government to criticize Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government on human rights.

"What does Modi need to do to India’s Muslim population before we will stop considering them a partner in peace?" Omar, who belongs to President Joe Biden's Democratic Party, said last week.

Modi's critics say his Hindu nationalist ruling party has fostered religious polarization since coming to power in 2014.

Since Modi came to power, right-wing Hindu groups have launched attacks on minorities claiming they are trying to prevent religious conversions. Several Indian states have passed or are considering anti-conversion laws that challenge the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief.

In 2019, the government passed a citizenship law that critics said undermined India's secular constitution by excluding Muslim migrants from neighbouring countries. The law was meant to grant Indian nationality to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs who fled Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before 2015.

In the same year, soon after his 2019 re-election win, Modi's government revoked the special status of Kashmir in a bid to fully integrate the Muslim-majority region with the rest of the country. To keep a lid on protests, the administration detained many Kashmir political leaders and sent many more paramilitary police and soldiers to the Himalayan region also claimed by Pakistan.

Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently banned wearing the hijab in classrooms in Karnataka state. Hardline Hindu groups later demanded such restrictions in more Indian states.

[Riaz Haq]

India’s wave of devastating violence jolts Muslims in Uttrakhand
“Our only answer will be their house getting bulldozed.”

Samriddhi Sakunia

https://ranaayyub.substack.com/p/indias-wave-of-devastating-violenc...

Muslim families I interviewed claim that Hindus and Muslims usually live in harmony and that the riot was unprecedented and surprising. When I interviewed Hindu families and asked them about this general sense of goodwill in the village, they expressed a deep hatred for those same neighbors.

Once he learned that I am Hindu, Om Pal, a Hindu resident of the village, was more willing to speak openly. “Dekho ji, yaha ke Musalmaan waise to inki Pakistaani soch hai, [See, madam, the muslims who stay here have a Pakistani mentality],” he said. “Whenever there is a match where India plays against Pakistan, these Muslims always cheer for Pakistan,” said “These people eat free rations given by Modi and later abuse Modi only. They also have free Rs.500 given by Modi but still plan against India.”

Other Hindu villagers felt the same way, though none wanted to be quoted by name. “Our only answer will be their house getting bulldozed,” one said.

[Riaz Haq]

Shoaib Daniyal
@ShoaibDaniyal
Muslims actually have a lower instance of polygamy than Hindus.

But data has no chance in the face of communal bias.

https://twitter.com/ShoaibDaniyal/status/1520634295085281280?s=20&a...

[Riaz Haq]

Are Hijab Wearing Women Oppressed?

"You can not assume that women (wearing hijab) are oppressed and then strip them of (hijab as) the insignia of oppression".

"Many women in England are adopting it (hijab) and saying they are finding happiness within".

"Women in Europe used to wear double veils and cover their heads for centuries. Then they started wearing hats before going bareheaded. Some still wear hats or caps when it is cold"


https://youtu.be/5De9CYpn17M

[Riaz Haq]

#Singapore bans The anti-#Muslim "Kashmir Files" movie as 'Provocative and one-sided'. #Islamophobia #Hindutva #Modi #BJP #KashmirFiles #India https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/kashmir-files-hindu-musli...

https://twitter.com/haqsmusings/status/1523842272470573056?s=20&...

SINGAPORE: A movie on the exodus of Hindus from the disputed Muslim-majority Kashmir region will be banned in Singapore.

The authorities have assessed the Hindi-language film The Kashmir Files to be “beyond” Singapore’s film classification guidelines, said the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) in a joint statement with Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

The movie, released in India in March to mixed reviews, tells the fictional story of a university student who learns that his Kashmiri Hindu parents were killed during the violent period of 1989 to 1990.

Hundreds of thousands of people had lost their homes and lives after they were forced out of Kashmir.

“The film will be refused classification for its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims and the depictions of Hindus being persecuted in the on-going conflict in Kashmir,” said the authorities in response to queries from CNA.

“These representations have the potential to cause enmity between different communities, and disrupt social cohesion and religious harmony in our multiracial and multi-religious society.”

Under the film classification guidelines, “any material that is denigrating to racial or religious communities in Singapore” will be refused classification, they added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had praised the film in March, saying it showed the truth of Kashmir's violent past.

Critics of the movie said it has factual inaccuracies and stokes anti-Muslim sentiments.

[Riaz Haq]

Muslims’ fertility rate sees sharpest decline over two decades, shows health ministry survey
Fertility rate among Muslims is only 0.36 points higher than that of Hindus, according to the latest National Family Health Survey.

https://scroll.in/latest/1023559/muslims-fertility-rate-sees-sharpe...


The fertility rate among Muslims has seen the sharpest decline among all religious communities over the past two decades, compared to other religious communities, data from the National Family Health Survey-5, released last week, has showed.

The fertility rate is the average number of children born to a woman in her lifetime.

The fertility rate among Muslims has dropped to 2.3 during the 2019 to 2021 period, from 2.6 recorded in 2015-16, the survey conducted by the Union health ministry showed. In 1992-93, Muslims had a fertility rate of 4.4.

Among Hindus, the fertility rate has dropped from 3.3 in 1992-93 to 1.94 in the latest survey. In the previous survey for 2015-16, fertility rate among Hindus was 2.1. The numbers show that the fertility rate has declined 46.5% among Muslims since 1992-93 and 41.2% in Hindus.

The fertility rate is 1.88% in Christians, 1.61% in Sikhs, 1.6% in Jains, and 1.39% in the Buddhist and Neo-Buddhist communities. The country’s total fertility rate has dipped to 2, according the survey, from 2.2 in 2015-16. The total fertility rate is currently below the replacement rate of 2.1.

Replacement rate is a crucial factor in the study of population growth. A replacement rate of less than 2.1 ensures the replacement of a woman and her partner upon death with no overall increase or decrease in the population.