My post on Sania Mirza being the face of the modern young Muslim woman drew flak from a modern young Muslim woman who commented:
Ms. Bansal, really. This is disappointing. You, as editor of JAM, believeing in stereotypes? Today, there may be a handful who aren't allowed to dream big. But that does not imply that all of us are oppressed. I do not speak because I am Muslim, but because I've seen so many Muslim women do what they want.
Everyone is dreaming, and everyone is achieving. Maybe you need to look at the situation with a little more scrutiny. Look at Negar Khan!I know alot of Muslim women. Let's just say - if you wouldn't know their names, you wouldn't think they're Muslim.
Well, Saira I wonder what you'd make of this news report. Apurv Pandit, a correspondent with The Pioneer in Bhopal filed this story recently on Tarannum Ara, a former schoolteacher from Kolkata who has just completed her MBA from IIM Indore.
I'm reproducing a couple of questions he asked - they prove my point about a Muslim woman in MBA school being unusual.
Being from a very traditional Muslim family, how did your parents react to your decision to join IIM, Indore?
Most of all, they were worried that I was going to live alone at a faraway city. It is not an accepted thing for women to do in my community. In fact, it took months of convincing to let my parents allow me to go to Indore. Now they don’t mind my going to Mumbai for the ICICI Lombard job.
Two years ago I was just another Muslim woman. Now I am a proud one at that.
Please note that last line. Being Muslim is an 'identity' thing. I can't imagine a girl called Tarana graduating from IIM Indore and saying,"2 years ago I was just another Hindu woman..."
Also, managing one's religious duties, given the pressures of modern life, is an issue for many young Muslims. Here's what Tarannum says.
How did you keep up with your religion during the two years at IIM, Indore?
Considering the tight schedule of classes, quizzes, assignments and presentations, I could not offer namaaz regularly. But I always kept a small copy of the Holy Quran with me as it gave me inner strength.
In fact, I would call upon more Muslim women as well as men from the middle-class to aspire for high-profile careers.
I hate to have to clarify this, but just because I have made these observations, there's no need to conclude I am a Hindu fanatic.
This is the tragedy of the secular vs communal debate.
There are more than two sides to every story.
Errr...Rashmi, what on earth happened about the columns? Yes? No? Any information would be nice!
ReplyDeleteThat is the problem in India.You cannot criticize someone without thinking about the fact that people are going to tune your comments out of proportion, or maybe even take a completely extreme view about you as a person.Why is it that anything said about the minority community is taken as a communal comment, even if the comments highlight the problems a normal person of that community has to face?Why is it that even in the 21st century,we have to enclose ourselves in a shell?
ReplyDeletehi Rashmi,
ReplyDeleteI find it good that you took time to reply to the comments that you got on your blog. I like many of the posts that you have written but I had been increasingly been forming an opinion that you come from the Walter Lipmann school of thought and thus think that blog is just another kind of broadcast mechanism.
Glad to see that see it as a tool/medium for conversations.
Like someone else said, glad to see that you took the time out to reply. I don't understand why one has to risk being branded a 'Hindu fanatic' simply because he/she highlights the issues facing a minority community. Reverse the scenario for one moment, if one were being critical of Hindu practises, I bet they'd be hailed as a secularist. Shame!
ReplyDelete