To some it matters little whether your head is covered or uncovered. What matters to them is how you live your life and how you conduct yourself on earth


CAN a clash among women of different sects be Pakistan’s ultimate nightmare? It can happen. If men can gun down each other in their places of worship for holding different religious beliefs, why can’t the women? Look around you with eyes opened wide. What do you see? A card carrying army of middle class women holding membership of different sectarian groups. They can be peaceful, militant, progressive or obscurantist.

A silent revolution gaining groundswell support from all over Pakistan — the hinterlands and the gaudy ‘gala’ cities touted by our present rulers as signs of ‘mega-development’ and so very 21st century — is occurring. There is something on in the state of Pakistan if half its population (women) is voluntarily wearing the hijab as opposed to Iran and Saudi Arabia where women are ordered to cover themselves, whether they like it or not.

Such a metamorphosis is a thesis ripe for any socio-religious scholar to pore over. For my part, let me stick to the more tangible cause-and-effect of this puzzle. Having lived away from my country for seven years, suddenly I find myself in a minority in the sector of Islamabad where I live. Most women here cover their heads and faces. I do neither.

How they are layered tells a lot about the religious organisation or non-organisation they belong to. Quite similar to the men whose religious beliefs are an open book because of the way they dress. Mushrooming mehfils, zikirs and majalis in street homes and public places attract huge assemblies of women as a ritual of life.

Many blame the television for pushing the average woman to the edge of the purdah. PTV is being held responsible for the effect among women whose sense of propriety is daily outraged by PTV. Should Shaikh Rashid be [dis]credited for bringing in becoming women in sleeveless shirts with flimsy dupattas disdainfully discarded to one side of the female form? As the lord and master of Pakistan Television, now gone ‘global’ as PM Shaukat Aziz gloated while delicate-ankled girls in gauzy yellow ghagras performed for him, the raven-haired moustachioed Shaikh sahab indeed ‘revolutionised’ the state owned television channel as information minister. Younger, prettier and buxom gals (never mind if they couldn’t act or mouth Pidgin English) suddenly descended on the idiot box. A sight for manly eyes, they till today titillate, tantalise and help men fantasise to the hilt. Indeed Shaikh Rashid and his talented information secretary — that is Mr Shahid Rafi — have singularly earned the enduring gratitude of Pakistani male audiences and convinced the Americans of Pervez Musharraf’s ‘enlightened moderation’.

Is it fair to heap all the blame on the military for getting the women of middle classes — young and not-so-young — to turn to hijab and nikab as a reaction to dictatorship? Yes, for many reasons clear as the shining blue sky. Conservative women who want none of the flamboyance and filmy fashions that have become the hallmarks of PTV and PEMRA-cleared foreign and local networks by another raven-haired, hardened face, the retired policeman, Iftikhar Rashid, have on the rebound taken to covering not only their bodies but their heads and faces with black tight scarves; skull caps with capes; big bulky chaddars covering the mouth, nose and the forehead with just the slits of the eyes showing. Instead of the good old burqa worn by women of the subcontinent, today we have an axis of Iranian, Afghan and Saudi styles of headwear.

Leaving aside the exploitation approved by networks and PEMRA of the female figure, the complete vileness of men in positions of power, the unabashed greed of the trading classes, the headless political parties with corrupt leaders living like royalty abroad, the yawning gap between the rich and the poor, have left the silent majority with just one option. Fundamentalism. Pakistan today is fast on that road. One military dictator Ziaul Haq forced us to follow his way of Islam, turning many en route hypocrites pretending to be very holy to curry favour with General Zia; the present military man, President Musharraf, with his ‘enlightened moderation’ and American support, has turned tens of thousands of housewives, working women and teenagers into walking tents in black.

But while most hide behind the cloth that covers their figure, face and head, society dames and fashion-hyped young teens are going wild with their tight-fitting shirts, the slits touching their waistlines and the drainpipe shalwars, as high and tight as their legs and hips can slip into.

Religion everywhere is personal. No one has a right to impose his or her brand of Islam on the people of Pakistan. Although Zia did. And now Musharraf is trying to convince women to stay away from the Taliban-like-lifestyle in vogue today. I remember Ismail Khan, the governor of Herat, going bananas each time my dupatta slid slightly off my face when interior minister general Naseerullah Babar flew a group of western diplomats and one woman — that being me — to Afghanistan in 1996. Ismail’s aide would come bounding to castigate me saying the governor couldn’t stand my hair showing. Today First Lady(ies) Sehba Musharraf and Ms Shaukat Aziz may not cover their heads, but it doesn’t mean the rest should follow their model.

And here’s the moot point: are barefaced and bareheaded women hell-bound? Only God knows. As Muslims we are taught to be good humans. Piety is not the prerogative of men in skullcaps and flowing beards or women in hijab and long, loose, button downed coats. You don’t have to attend religious mehfils to purify your soul; you don’t have to gather madressah boys to recite the Holy Quran for your dear departed; you don’t have to depend on the local maulvi sahab to translate the word of God for you and your kids and shower his dua on you.

Allah has revealed the Holy Quran for the Muslims to not just recite but follow it in its essence. The route to heaven is in being a good human being who cares for his family, community and country; tries to do a honest day’s work; does not harm his fellow beings; pays his taxes and does not cheat the state of its dues; shuns hypocrisy and dishonesty; obeys the laws and follows the rules; gives freely of his time, energy and money to those less fortunate than him/her ... the list towards attaining perfection as a human is long and the road arduous.

It’s very well to come in big glitzy cars to offer your prayers at the local mosque. But following traffic rules and allowing those in front the right of way after saying your prayers is equally pleasing to Allah, as is a woman in a hijab whose civic sense prevents her from littering the road on which she is walking and eating a packet of potato chips. (I mention this because I see namazis wanting to hog the road blithely ignoring (especially women drivers) around them; I see women with head scarves lost in a world of their own oblivious of others around on the roads or in shops — pushing and shoving and wanting to be served first. Patience is a virtue missing in most of us.

It matters little whether your head is covered or uncovered; it matters not whether you sport a beard or are clean-shaven. To each his own. What matters is how you live your life and how you conduct yourself on earth.

Allah Hafiz. None says Khuda Hafiz anymore. The veil and Allah Hafiz have changed the face of Pakistan today.