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Militants' diktat on veil draws flak

By Shujaat Bukhari

RAJOURI DEC. 17. The diktat by militants asking women, particularly school going girls, to choose between adopting the "burqa" (veil) or quitting educational institutions in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch has not yet been resisted but is being seen as an attempt to curtail the freedom of women.

As in Srinagar, it is no Lashkar-e-Jabbar here, but handwritten posters have appeared in Darhal area here and the upper villages of Poonch asking the schoolgoing girls to use the veil or stop going to school. This has resulted in migration from various areas to Poonch town.

In many educational institutions, many girls wear the "burqa" but the compulsion is resented.

The common response is that in Islam neither education for women is prohibited nor there is any condition of having the veil for going to school.

"In fact, they want to Talibanise our society", said Ashiq Hussain. In most of the villages, the diktat has worked and the girls have stopped going to schools fearing reprisal by militant groups.

No posters as such have appeared in the Rajouri and Poonch towns as yet. "They can do it anytime and nobody is going to stop them," said a resident of Rajouri. "On Monday, a grenade was thrown in the market and two persons were killed. Who could stop them," he asked.

"This suffocates the entire womenfolk irrespective of religion," said Shivali, a college student. Her classmate, Shaheen, was so terrified she refused to talk.

The Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, has also lamented the "diktat" saying that militants have no business interfering in the personal matters of women. "What kind of Islam are they preaching," he asked.

Quoting a saying of Prophet Muhammad, the Mufti said that it was obligatory upon Muslim men and women to get education. "Only then can they prosper and get out of backwardness. "It would cause imbalance in society if men alone were educated." He asked people to resist such moves saying the "Government can hardly help in this".

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