Lifting the veil for Mukul Kesavan!

By John Cheeran
It is quite possible that some people feel free with handcuffs on, they can claim that those cuffs are much like bangles on other hands.
Such is the beauty of looking through the glass.
In the editorial pages of Telegraph, Calcutta, Mukul Kesavan has vigorously defended some group of people's right to wear whatever they feel like, in the name of god and religion.
Kesavan, who has lived in varied places such as London, New York and Old Delhi cautions us against the pitfalls of going by common sense. He has compared British bureaucrat Jack Straw with Australian imam Taj Din Al Hilali.
Hilali says women always should cover them with hijab so that they can be safe. Straw said you may cover yourself with hijab but better remove your veil when you are speaking to other non-veil person.
Kesavan is a novelist, lecturer (at Jamia Milia Islamia) and at times he has written about cricket with perspicacity.
I must, however, say that by treating Straw's and Al Hilali's observations through the same lens, Kesavan is confusing the picture of choice.
Common sense has its virtues; prevention of rape is not one of them. Common sense has its virtues, better communication can be one of them.
Wearing clothes of their choice should not make women vulnerable; removing their veils when they have to, too should not make them (such laws are always only meant for women) vulnerable to rape.
So what's the big deal in removing the veil when they are required to do so?
Cultural diversity is fine. It is ridiculous that Kesavan is spending his energy to defend a section that is dead set against diversity of any sorts, refuse to admit plurality of thought, worship and dressing.
It is a pity that the debate on the right to wear religious and cultural symbols is conducted under the cover of Islam.
My wife happened to teach Muslim teenagers in a Dubai school for some time. Those students were from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and the UAE. Among a class of 20, only one girl was covering her hair. None of the girls wore a hijab, everyone came in knee-length skirts and shirts.
Other girls (all of them Muslim) used to tease the covered one for being too scared of religion.
19 of them told their Indian school teacher that all of them enjoy showing off their silky hair and are ready to go to hell for that.
Well, Kesavan, Muslim teenagers in the Middle East do not mind going to hell!
They are ready to suffer for the crime of not wearing a hijab, not wearing a veil.
And I have been told that young Muslim women in the Middle East wear Diesel jeans and Victoria's Secret under their hijab.
So how many versions of Islam are out there?
Whose birthright is it then to wear hijabs?
So wearing hijab hardly constitute a cultural resistance. Women want to be women most of the time. They are the most practical lot among god's creations and lifting the veil for a few minutes will not be an inconvenience for Muslim women.
Let's give way to them.