It is a matter of choice, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, and rightly so.
Amid the burqa row in Karnataka, a group of girls, in consultation with students wing of Islamist group Popular Front of India PFI), Campus Front of India (CFI) have been protesting for their ‘right to wear a hijab (headscarf)’ to college. They are protesting by wearing full covered burqa (entire body covering veil).
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took to Twitter to extend her support to women to exercise their right to choose to wear whatever they want to – from ghoonghat to jeans to burqa to bikini.
👍
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 9, 2022
She tweeted that whether it is bikini, a ghoonghat, a pair of jeans or hijab, a woman decides what to wear. She added that this right is GUARANTEED (all caps) by the Indian constitution and added that one should stop harassing women. She ended her tweet with her ‘Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon’ UP election slogan.
Her brother, Rahul Gandhi, former Congress President and currently MP from Wayanad, replied with a ‘thumbs up’ emoji to his sister.
Stop harassing women, indeed
Let us not get into the whole debate of how hijab, burqa is hardly a choice since there are parts of the world where women are killed for refusing to wear one. If the women who wear it claim it is their choice, it comes from a place of privilege because should they choose not to wear it, they will not be killed, unlike their counterpart in countries like Afghanistan. No, I am not comparing secular India with Islamic Afghanistan, but since the judiciary in secular India is now citing Quran and Sharia rules for hijab, burqa and what women could and should wear, it is only fair to compare the fate of women who swear by the holy book.
So, let us not get there as a lot has been said and done about it.
But let us all talk about Congress leaders and their comments on women and the choice of clothes they wear.
Because I’m quite certain some of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s colleagues, including her own brother, could do with some of her gyaan.
Casual sexism thrown in by Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi
Back in 2017, Rahul Gandhi was addressing a rally in poll-bound Gujarat. Rahul Gandhi was, as usual, taking a dig on the RSS. Suddenly he decided to comment whether women go to the Shakha wearing shorts.
Inka (BJP) main sangathan RSS hai. Kitni mahila hain usme, kabhi shaakha mein mahilaon ko dekha hai shorts mein? Maine to nahi dekha: RG pic.twitter.com/cAxxmDqdw8
— ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2017
So, women can be ‘progressive’ only if they wear shorts? As a woman, this feels extremely demeaning that a leader would say such a thing. How is this any different from the Islamists who compare women with lollipops and say that candies must be kept in wrapper otherwise they’ll get ants on them?
And then there is the ‘tunch maal’ fame Digvijaya Singh. In December last year, he quoted Priyanka Gandhi herself and claimed that she told him that women who keep mobile phones and wear jeans do not support Prime Minister Modi. Digvijaya Singh said that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had told him that only older among aged 40-50 years and above are influenced by PM Modi, and the women who wear jeans and use mobile phones are not influenced by the PM. Therefore, Congress should work on approaching these younger women, she had advised him.
If Priyanka Gandhi Vadra really did say this, then it is obvious that her platitudes on ‘choice’ are nothing but political rhetorics. And if she didn’t say it and Singh made it all up and attributed figment of his imagination to her, it shows the degeneracy of his own mind.
Oh, and if ghoonghat is also a choice, how about her own party leader and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who wants to get rid of ghoonghat?
समाज को एक महिला को घूंघट में कैद करने का अधिकार नहीं है, नारी को घूंघट में कैद नहीं कर सकते।
— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) November 5, 2019
नारी को जब दुर्गा कहते हैं तो उसकी भी देश के निर्माण में भागीदारी होनी चाहिए…अब ज़माना बदल चुका है, हिम्मत और हौसले के साथ महिलाओं को आगे बढ़ना होगा, सरकार आपको हमेशा साथ खड़ी मिलेगी। pic.twitter.com/g1zKsm8WAG
In November 2019 he had said how the society has no right to encage women in ghoonghat. What made them feel that the women in ghoonghat were not wearing it out of choice? Gehlot just decided that the women in ghoonghat were encaged and that it is up to him to give them freedom. Quite contrary to what Priyanka is saying, right?
And then Priyanka Gandhi talks about harassment of women. Let’s talk about the casual sexist slurs thrown on women, especially BJP leaders by her party leaders.
In 2019, while addressing a rally in Rajasthan ahead of general elections, Rahul Gandhi very casually displayed his toxic masculinity while taking a dig at PM Modi. He said that the prime minister who boasted of a 56-inch chest did not attend the court of the public, that is the Parliament. “We demolished the Defence Minister’s speech. The prime minister, who has 56-inch-chest, asked a woman to defend him,” he said. He was speaking about the so-called Rafale scam.
The Raksha Mantri whom he had reduced to a woman is a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) graduate, holds an MA in Economics and served as an assistant to Economist in the Agricultural Engineers Association in the UK. She also worked Price Waterhouse during her stay in the UK. As Raksha Mantri, she has led from the front, whether it is interacting with the MiG 29k pilots and sailors or greeting the Chinese soldiers at the India-China border at Nathu La. But for Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka’s brother, she was just a woman.
Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam had also raised strife by bad-mouthing BJP MP Smriti Irani in December 2012, when assembly election results of Gujarat was announced saying, “It’s only four days of your entry into politics and you have become a political analyst. Aap toh TV pe thumke lagati thi, Aaj chunavi vishleshak ban gayi.” (You used to dance on TV screen, now you are a political analyst?)
You see, behind the garb of being progressive, feminist men, these leaders are ordinary sexist men one comes across on streets. So while Priyanka Gandhi has taken it upon herself to fight for women’s right to wear bikini, burqa, ghoonghat and jeans, she should first tell her party leaders, especially her brother, not to judge women for their clothes.
Just let us be. And don’t kill us for choosing not to wear burqas or hijabs.
