Source: DW
Decency, sophistication, grace, and fitting within a social norm are what the world often seeks from a woman. Keep your head low and the length of your veil even lower. If you dare to fit within a “modern” space, ditch your hijab and salwar kameez for an attire cool enough to be modern and decent enough to not be “slutty”.
The custodial death of Mahsa Amini over improper wearing of her hijab has caused a major stir across Iran and in fact across the globe. The question here is ofcourse about the despotism and brutality prevailing in Iran, the orthodoxy underlying the scenario and what is often missed here is that it is an issue of who holds the agency of what women should wear and what they should not.
Mahsa Amini Case
The 22-year-old woman was arrested in Tehran, Iran, and taken into custody, where after three days she died. The authorities attributed the cause of her death to a heart attack. However, reports assert, in detention, Amini was beaten and probably tortured, which eventually pushed her into a coma, leading to her death. Amina’s father also added that the girl had no heart ailments and had bruises on her legs.
Iran has had stringent morality police that have enforced strict social dress codes for women. Consequently, Amina was taken into custody due to improper wearing of the hijab, it didn't cover her entire hair. There has been a similar crackdown on women by the morality police.
All of this is symbolic of the highly ingrained patriarchy and orthodoxy in the
Iranian society. It shows how regressive Iran is. The imposition of what a woman should wear is profoundly regressive.
What Should You Not Wear?
On the contrary, in our country earlier this year the Karnataka hijab ban lay on the other end of the pole. Where hijab-clad Muslim students were denied entry into the premises of an educational institution. The students protested against the same and filed petitions against the same.
A clear hindrance to their right to practice their religion as per their fundamental right of right to freedom of religion was very evident. There was an attempt at unjust regulating of what a woman should wear by people who shouldn't have any stake in the matter.
Everyday Moral Policing
While many may act as if they were stupefied by these occurrences, for most women this has become a tale so normalized that it may irk us but it doesn't seem to be abnormal.
The subtle nudge that your mother makes when you roam around in shorts when a male is around, or the ordeal of wearing clothes that "cover you enough" just because you fear being looked at with a gaze that scares you. Not only this but the relatives who are too cool to be okay to see you wearing a salwar kameez to a family dinner because it is too traditional, too regressive for their "modern" personality.
In the 21st century, we still believe that character lies in what you wear. Your intellect is not inside of your head but outside, painted on what you wear. Your values are pious only if you dress as per what the social moral compass ascribes to you.
Whose Values Are They Anyway?
At this juncture, it is also important to assess who are the determiners of what you wear. You may hate your mother or grandmother for pestering you with dressing a certain way. But what makes them do what they do? The fear that you would be sexualized, by whom….by men.
The agency that rests within a man's hand spreads wide into the ambits of what you do and how you do it. The man is not only the king of his life but also yours because we are still bound in the shackles of what is widely a man's world.
Amina is killed because men feel their norms of Islam are flouted. Hijab-clad women are denied entry because it violates a certain non-inclusive uniform policy. Your modernity is not depicted by your thoughts and views and education but by what you wear.
Bottom Line
The bottom line here is that what one wears is only one minor aspect of their personality. What a woman wears is what she should wish to and not what fits well with norms designed by men and what makes them fit into certain categories.
Written by Ananya Verma
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