Cricketer Irfan Pathan was at the receiving end of Islamist fury after he shared a picture of himself with his wife without a burqa. This is the first time Pathan has shared a picture of his wife with her face uncovered.
On his eighth anniversary, Pathan shared a picture with his wife with the caption, “Infinite roles mastered by one soul – mood booster, comedian, troublemaker, and the constant companion, friend, and mother of my children. In this beautiful journey, I cherish you as my wife. Happy 8th my love.”
However, no sooner did the former Indian cricketer share an unveiled picture of his wife, than scores of Islamists descended on his timeline, attacking him for uploading the picture in which his wife has covered herself in a burqa.
“Muslim khatoons ko hijab mein rehna chaye,” replied one of the X users.
Another one replied, “Being a Muslim, you should not reveal her publicly.”
Yet another user shared a picture of Irfan’s brother, Yusuf Pathan and his wife, who was wearing a burqa, and said, “That’s why your brother is better than you.”
One X user asked if he had kept his wife under purdah for so long, what was the need today that he had to show her face to everyone today.
Irfan Pathan married Saba Baig, a former model born and brought up in Saudi Arabia, on 4 February 2016. Baig gave up her thriving modelling career after her marriage with the cricketer.
As per reports, she encountered Irfan Pathan in 2014, initiating a romantic relationship that culminated in marriage in 2016. At the time of their union, she was merely 21 years old, presenting a decade’s age difference with her spouse, Irfan Pathan. The couple welcomed their son, Imran Khan, in December 2016.
Irfan Pathan had thus far always refrained from sharing pictures of his wife’s face online. In the pictures he had shared before, his wife was either spotted in a burqa or with hands covering her face.
According to the Muslim fundamentalists following the puritanical strand of Islam, their religious scriptures ordain women to remain under a hijab in a public place.
In 2022, a controversy erupted in Karnataka over the hijab ban in schools and colleges that had uniforms. The ban was upheld by the Karnataka High Court which observed that wearing a hijab is not an essential practice in Islam. A large number of Muslim fundamentalists had protested against the then BJP government in the state, accusing them of Islamophobia for enforcing the rules of uniform in schools and colleges. Several so-called liberals had then sided with the fundamentalists, contending that wearing a hijab was a ‘choice’ and the government was infringing upon the individual rights enshrined in the constitution.
