Zaira Wasim Opens Up On The Hijab Controversy In Karnataka

On Saturday, 'Dangal' actress Zaira Wasim reacted to the ongoing hijab controversy in Karnataka. Many celebrities, including veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar and actressSonam Kapoor, have taken notice of the ongoing unrest in the state of Karnataka over whether students should be allowed to wear hijab in educational institutions.

Former actress Wasim is the latest to take to social media to express her displeasure with the situation. She wrote a long message on Twitter about how the inherited notion of hijab as a choice is an ill-informed one.

Wasim’s post comes just days after protestors in Karnataka heckled several women for wearing a hijab. The 21-years old wrote, “It's often either a construct of convenience or ignorance. Hijab isn't a choice but an obligation in Islam. Likewise, a woman who wears the hijab is fulfilling an obligation enjoined upon her by the God she loves and has submitted herself to.”

Sharing her personal experience, the ‘Secret Superstar’ actress added, “I, as a woman who wears the hijab with gratitude and humility, resent and resist this entire system where women are being stopped and harassed for merely carrying out a religious commitment.”

Wasim also chastised the critics for "attempting to force them to make a very specific choice that feeds your agenda and then criticising them while they're imprisoned in what you've built."

The Karnataka government submitted to the Karnataka High Court on Friday (February 18) that Hijab is not an essential religious practise of the Muslim faith and that prohibiting it does not violate the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.

The various petitions challenging the ban on Hijab in educational institutes in the state were heard by a three-judge bench consisting of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justices Krishna S Dixit and JM Khazi.

Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi, who is representing the Karnataka government, said that the state of Karnataka has taken the position that Hijab is not an essential religious practise of Islam.