As the Karnataka hijab row is being exploited by the political parties during the ongoing assembly polls, usual suspects have started to familiar arguments in support of Islamic veil rules for woman. In the latest episode, Congress leader Zameer Ahmed has claimed that women without hijab get raped.
B. Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, Congress MLA from Chamrajpet constituency in Karnataka, has joined the hijab debate by claiming that the Islamic veil is for protecting the beauty of women from potential rapists. When asked about his views on the matter, he said, “Hijab means purdah in Islam, (those who are opposing it) may not have women and children in their house, if they had, they would have known it. The purpose of the hijab is, after the girls grow up, it is used to keep them under Purdah, as their beauty should not be seen. Hijab is used to keep their beauty hidden’.
#WATCH | Hijab means ‘Parda’ in Islam…to hide the beauty of women…women get raped when they don’t wear Hijab: Congress leader Zameer Ahmed on #HijabRow in Hubli, Karnataka pic.twitter.com/8Ole8wjLQF
— ANI (@ANI) February 13, 2022
Zameer Ahmed Khan further added, ‘As you must have seen, the rape rate in India is perhaps the highest in the world. What is the reason, because the women are not kept under purdah.’
He however added that hijab is not compulsory, but those women who want to keep their beauty hidden can wear it to prevent getting raped. He said that there is nothing new in this, and this is a years old system.
As expected, the comments made by the Congress MLA are baseless and misleading. First, Karnataka govt has not banned Muslim women from wearing hijab like the Congress party and the so-called feminists are claiming. Only the students of colleges, where dress codes are in place, are being prevented from wearing hijab inside classrooms. They can wear it elsewhere, and other Muslim women are free to be under purdah as per their wish. The restriction is only on students, as they are expected to follow the uniform rules of their colleges.
The claim that exposure of body by women leads to more rape has been debunked numerous times, as the data on rape does not support this claim. Fully clothed women are raped and harassed regularly, and incidents of women in burqa getting raped also have quite often.
And the claim that rape rate in India is highest is completely wrong. According to data, the rate of rape in India is 1.81 per 100,000 population, which at 95th position among 119 countries, which implies a significantly lower rate. Botswana tops the chart with 93 rapes er 100000 citizens.
