Author: AM Sofi
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: August 27, 2001
Introduction: Attacks by insurgents
and lack of protection leave women with no alternative.
One dares to defy the orders of
militants because there is no protection available, say a cross section
of working women in Srinagar, where tailors are doing a brisk business
making burqas after an unknown outfit Lashkar-e-jabbar issued Islamic dress
code for women to adhere to.
Even though many Kashmiri organisations
including the Hurriyat have distanced themselves from the diktat, the demand
for burqas and veils has shot up as the September 1 deadline approaches.
Most women say there is no alternative
to using burqa or stay home. Ruksana Habib, who has completed nearly 30
years of government service, has never used burqa during her entire career
'What purpose will it serve if I am defaced at this stage of my life,'
she asked? The two teachers - Gaziyla and Rubiya - associated with a higher
secondary school, were sprinkled with acid while they were returning around
8 pm after an excursion. Two other women faced similar treatment at Kaksara
recently.
Lashkar-e-jabbar has owned responsibility
for throwing add on two government teachers at ranger-stop near Khanyar
in downtown Srinagar earlier this month.
The acid throwing incidents preceded
'leg shot' (hurting a person short of taking life in militant parlance)
fired by militants on three women, in a shop in south Kashmir. While two
women received gun shot wounds in the legs, another woman was hit in the
arm for not wearing the veil.
In July, Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Toiba
(LeT) militant outfit had appealed' to the Muslim women and men to adhere
to five Namaz a day and observe pardah.
'Divisional commander- of the outfit
for south Kashmir, Abu Murshid, called a local news agency on phone late
July to ask young girls not to roans without veil or in transparent outfits.
They also asked men to grow beard. But there was no threat or deadline
for the diktat.
Following the diktats, queues are
seen outside tailoring shops while several shopkeepers have begun selling
readymade burqas. Stickers reading "observe burqa dress' and 'cover yourself
before grave covers you- are seen in most public institutions and vehicles.
In several localities, militants
have asked transporters not to take women who are without a burqa, while
shopkeepers have been told to cater only to burqa-wearing customers. Unlike
in the infancy of militancy when newspapers were flooded with statements
of almost all militant organisations urging women to wear burqa, militants
this time have launched a silent campaign, visiting educational institutions
and other establishments asking heads of the institutions to enforce the
veil.
In one such incident, a carbine-weilding
youth entered the government higher secondary school at Kothibagh in Srinagar
in the first week of August, asking girl students to observe pardah.
Minutes after the incident, the
school authorities asked the students to come to the school with veil.
Those who don't have burqa were asked not to come to the school, Rubiya,
a student of the school said. The prescribed burqa: a two-piece dress which
covers from head to foot with a thin veil over the ears and eyes.
The burqa drive is restricted to
the towns only. In rural areas, which account for 80 per cent of Kashmir's
one crore population, most women continue, with the traditional Kashmiri
'pheran' and head veil and find wearing burqa a hindrance to their daily
chores.
Old-timers talk of the 1950s and
before, when all Kashmiri women, from the the majority Muslim community
and pandits and sikhs, used to wear white burqas, recalls 75-year-old resident.
"Then there were no compulsions.
However, everyone, whether Muslim or Hindu used to have the regional dress.
Now the times have changed," says Ms Khatee in Badipora village of Budgam
district.
The organisation spearheading the
pro-burqa drive claims that its campaign has made an impact this time.
Way back in 1989, Hizbi Islami hit headlines when it launched a campaign
for closure of restaurants during Ramzan and for burqa. The move triggered
a controversy with many arguing that no system should be forcibly implemented.
- Agencies
