Syeda Semim Zahan’s blog entry grabbed my attention immediately. No she’s no celebrity or a writer by profession but an educated, burqaless Muslim woman living with fear. She shares one of her conversations with a stranger, which goes as follows:
“Madam are you a Musalmaan?”
“Yes. But how do you know?”
“Oh, you get letters at the address 2047.”
Imagine the effect this little informal talk had on Zahan, “So they have registered my identity in case there is a riot.” Such is the plight of a Muslim in India, be it a man or a woman. Every one of them is treated with a courtesy as is attributed to an insect. He/she is the centre of the attention and not for reasons that go in his/her interest.
Harmless educated Muslims are either confronted with a blunt “NO because you are a Muslim” by the landlords when looking for a place to live in or they receive comments like, “Hey, you got me there. You no way look like a Muslim.” Now, tell me is that supposed to be a comment or a compliment. I have never heard of anyone exclaiming, “Mmmm…you don’t look like a Hindu/Sikh/Christian!” Then why do we reserve special responses for the ones following Islam?
Via BlogBharti
Tags: Democracy, Gender, Indian society, Injustice, Islam, Justice, Politics, Religion, Women