Which is important? – Hijab, Uniform, and Education

Last Updated on June 12, 2023

Hijab is different from Niqab and Burqa. Hijab is like a head scarf usually covering the hair, head, neck, chest, etc. On the other hand, a Burqa completely covers the body, sometimes, including the eyes. Wikipedia says – Face veiling has not been regarded as a religious requirement by most Islamic scholars, either in the past or the present.

This is why many countries have partially or completely banned face veils like Niqab and Burqa in public places, workplaces, and some localities. Some of them are actually countries with Muslim-majority populations like – Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, and Algeria. It is pretty obvious why it would be banned – Security reasons. There are other reasons as well. But, this is the most important one, at least for the government from a law and order perspective, as anybody, terrorist or not, can hide their identity for committing crimes.

There are some differences of opinions about the meaning of the word Hijab. The popular meaning may be a head scarf, but some people interpreting Quran say that it only means the curtain between Prophet Muhammad’s main house and his wives’ residential lodgings. Some others say that it only means “barrier” – a barrier between man or the world from God. This might explain why some call the headscarf by the name khimar. People who use the words khimar say that it was a pre-Islamic piece of clothing and the Qur’an simply recommended how to wear these.

Similar to the hijab, in the Hindi belt region of India, Goonghat is used by Hindu women to cover their faces. These different face veils might have some practical applications like covering one’s face, especially the mouth, acting as a face mask to prevent pathogens and pollutants from entering or exiting. In reality, the scope of this application is very limited unless you don’t have a face mask with you and there is an outbreak of Covid. Yes, you are right, Of course, a handkerchief can do a better job.

Hijab, Education and Women empowerment

If the hijab is pre-Islamic and Quran only recommends how to wear it, but not mandates it, then it can be argued that the culture driven by religion and politics has turned this into a requirement for an individual. This requirement is handled by parents and senior members of a family by enforcing this dress code through either influence or compulsion. If this is against a women’s right to choose what she wears then, obviously, this is against her freedom and therefore, against her empowerment. This explains why many women in Iran have sacrificed their life while protesting against compulsory hijab. According to a post by Scroll.in, 52 people have lost their lives – a statement from Amnesty International and Oslo-based Iran Human Rights estimated that at least 92 persons have been killed in the unrest that entered its 16th day on Sunday, reported AFP.

Quran may not mandate hijab, and this may be the reason why Karnataka High Court rules that “hijab is not an essential religious practice in Islam“. But, the more important question is – Is education not an essential part of children growing up? Neither the government nor the schools are concerned about what happens to girls’ education after the ban. Wikipedia for Karnatka Hijab row 2022 under Imapct section says – “145 of 900, nearly 16% of female Muslim students from government and aided colleges in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, which were at the center of the hijab controversy, took transfer certificates. Some of these students took admission in colleges where hijab was allowed, while others did not take admission anywhere due to inability to pay the college fees.“

This had become so hopeless for Muslim female students that when they asked the Vice Chancellor of Mangalore University Prof Yadpadithaya about continuing their education, he said “As these issues cannot be resolved, I had directed them to approach Karnataka State Open University (KSOU)”. Maybe, the Vice Chancellor was being pragmatic and saying it with good intentions. However, that is only a nicer way of saying – “don’t go to any college” because Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) is a distance-learning university. Especially, when such “encouraging” words come from a Vice Chancellor himself, it shows how friendly and favorable the education system is towards students.

In the cases where students didn’t take admission anywhere due to their inability to pay the college fees, I feel very sorry for them. As I said in the previous paragraph, they didn’t get much help from the education department or system. At least, their parents should have let their children continue in the same college. It hurts me a little bit that they chose a piece of clothing over their children’s education. The piece of clothing might be significant to them religiously or otherwise, but it doesn’t help much for a student to learn and grow academically, mentally, physically, and later, financially. It doesn’t help much in acquiring skills to solve one’s problems and even the community’s problems.

My thoughts on Government’s reaction

According to Wikipedia and The Hindu, the government’s reaction by issuing an order:

On either 3 February or 4 February,[g] the government issued an order stating that the uniforms mandated by the state government, the school managements or college development committees must be worn compulsorily.[82] Students following religious tenents adversely impacted “equality and unity” in colleges, according to the order.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Karnataka_hijab_row#Government_reaction

First, let’s consider the concept of unity before going to equality among students in colleges.

Unity among students

It is a standard practice in every college and school that a student’s performance is evaluated at an individual level. These can take the forms of internals/tests or semester-end or final exams. So, students are constantly under pressure from parents and teachers to only think about themselves and their academic performance, not to mention the peer pressure – constantly comparing themselves against others, an unhealthy competition. It is all about individuals and competition. The education system supports and promotes only individual growth, not collective growth. Collective growth requires cooperation and coordination. Without cooperation, there can be no deeper sense of unity.

To be fair, there are activities that require not just competition but also cooperation like sports, Cultural activities, and Annual day programs, etc. However, they don’t carry any credits or don’t count for any tests. So, they are not as important. The only thing, as far as I know, that requires cooperation and also matters is project work. And, How many project works do we have in a degree? one or two? and How many individuals usually work in a project group? 2 or 4? So, the idea of unity doesn’t arise until there is some fun activity in which they all can participate like a Class trip, Ethnic day, or Birthday celebration. The scope of unity is limited and it is not meant for important activities.

If there were more co-operation-driven activities, not necessarily associated with political agenda or social service, but also for academic learning objectives or collectively acquiring skills to solve problems, then, we would have different kind of performance evaluation methods that focuses on groups. Then, we would have scope for unity within a group and between groups and not just individuals.

Equality among students with Uniforms

Having considered the concept of unity in the previous paragraphs, let’s now look into Equality among students.

We humans had to have bloody revolutions in the past to secure some level of equality in our society like Equality before the law and One Vote for all. However, the Virtue of fairness and feelings of equal treatment are not just limited to humans. In this 2-minute TED Talk video on youtube, you can see how a monkey reacts to unequal treatment. In the experiment, 2 monkeys were given a reward after completing a task. If both of them receive the same reward, they happily accept it. But, when one of them gets a piece of cucumber and the other a delicious grape, the monkey hurls the piece of cucumber at the person conducting the experiment and keeps banging the ledge in protest. This means even the monkeys understand the concept of Equal pay for Equal work..

From the experiment, we learn that people are born with a sense of equality. We can easily see this in small kids. They don’t really care whether you are in Louis Vuitton, with Rolex, and carrying a Gucci bag. On top of it, while you are holding them up in your arms, they will relieve themselves from a bathroom emergency. Kids could be victims of unequal treatment, but they are too innocent to treat others unequally.

As children grow, their capacity to understand increases. They develop their intelligence including emotional intelligence. They begin to see the nuances in everything. So, they have an ever richer experience than before. As their capacity to differentiate between things increases, naturally, they start to see inequalities in everything, including their friends and classmates.

In schools and colleges, we have uniforms. This is unnecessary in my opinion. It utterly fails to serve the purpose of inculcating a sense of equality among students. The argument for the uniform goes something like this – if there were no uniforms, then the students would see the differences in their dress reflecting economic, social, or religious status. How dumb are the students? They can write a computer program in python in 5th Grade but they can’t notice differences in jewelry, make-up, school bag, lunch box, pens, etc. The dress code or uniform simply falls flat against these differences. This is absolute nonsense. Hold on, this gets even more absurd.

Students know very well they are not equal in many respects. But, when it comes to exams, teachers, and school rules, they know that they are equally treated. Whenever it isn’t, they spot it easily. When a teacher shows favoritism in class and doesn’t give equal punishment for equally mischievous behavior, they feel wronged immediately. They will raise their voice against it If the school provides a friendly environment for it. How students are subjected to school rules and how they are treated by teachers and staff and how they are going to face exams and get results from them is more than enough to make them feel a sense of equality and fairness. They don’t need a dress code.

It is not mandated by the government to have uniforms in PUC(Pre-University College) – 11th and 12th grade. But, the colleges do so in the name of “unity and equality”, or as a way to keep students disciplined. I think that there is an ulterior motive behind it – free advertisements with uniforms for these colleges – a cheap trick by a profiteering business.

Secularism in schools

According to Wikipedia and The Hindu the government was reaction by issuing an order:

The ministers of Bharatiya Janata Party-led Karnataka government reacted to the incidents with apparent distaste. The education minister B. C. Nagesh termed it as an “act of indiscipline“. The students could not practise their “religion” in public educational institutions, in his view. He blamed “political leaders”, an apparent reference to the PFI, for provoking the students, who were allegedly “playing politics”.[78] Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said that there must be a universal feeling in schools and colleges that “we are all Indians”, which required that the uniform code set by colleges be followed.[

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Karnataka_hijab_row#Government_reaction

I would love to see the schools be more secular as the education minister says. On the same grounds, it is only obvious to ask – why do we celebrate Ganesh Chaturti and Sawarswati Pooja in schools? Many schools even have images of Lord Saraswati – Goddess of Knowledge. Are they not remotely connected to religion? When he said “could not practice their religion” does he refer to one specific religion?

Why is this double standard? This is a typical politicization of issues. In the next sentence, he blames “political leaders from PFI” for provoking students. This may be true. Unfortunately, In a way, to some extent, he doesn’t appear to be not so different from them when he further politicizes the issue by saying they cannot practice their religion when in fact other religions are very well practiced. He just wants to appeal to his and his party’s voter base.

These politicians should focus on making the education affordable and improve its quality rather than playing with students future for a political gain. Indian universities have a lot of room to improve and catch up to universities around.

None of the Indian universities feature in Top 100 world University Rankings in QS survey and THE survey rankings. This means they don’t live up to global standards and therefore, are not globally competitive. Yet, these private institutions charge exorbitant fees. Just imagine how much they would have charged if there were in top 100.

On getting rid of religious practices in public educational institutions, I am not in favor of doing it abruptly if it comes at the cost of hurting students’ education as happened with some Muslim girls when they dropped out of their education. I think when students study secular subjects like maths, science – natural science, social science, and political science, they would, sooner or later, understand religion plays no part in these subjects. So, in an acceptable way, without hurting students’ education schools can be made to lose religious practices over time.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Uniform doesn’t serve the purpose it is meant to serve – a “sense of unity and equality”. Therefore, there should be no dress code or uniform. If there were no uniforms then we wouldn’t have had the issue regarding Hijab. More importantly, what we study and how we learn should matter more than what we wear. Unfortunately, neither the education system nor government cares about the education of future generations other than merely using it as a means to better their political prospects. In some cases, even the parents stopped sending their kids to schools that accept hijab because of unaffordable school fees. In those cases, the community should have taken a firm stand to continue sending their children to the same schools by making their children’s education a priority. Ultimately, it is the innocent Muslim female students who bore the brunt of the issue, in some cases, even sacrificing their future.