TOWARDS A DIGNIFIED DRESS CODE!
TOWARDS A
DIGNIFIED DRESS CODE!
Dr M. D.
Thomas
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The Muslim Educational Society (MES) headquartered in Kozhikode, Kerala, on 02 May 2019, has come up with a historic decision to ‘ban all face covering attires’. The President of the organization, Fazal Gafoor, directed the 150 educational institutions run by it in the state by issuing a circular in April, in view of ensuring the administrative implementation of the above decision. Accordingly, both teachers and students of the campuses of these institutions will launch a new Muslim culture of dress code from the forthcoming academic year 2019-2020 onwards.
Having been running more than 50 schools, a number of postgraduate colleges, women’s colleges, professional institutions like engineering colleges, medical college, nursing college and dental college, MES is credited to have gained maturity and experience to arrive at the above realization. Without doubt, MES is worthy of being complimented for re-imagining the dress code of teachers and students of its institutions and thus for positively freeing the educational and social sectors of the Muslim community from the power-crazy and conservative religious sector that had condemned the Muslim women to dress up like a package, even hiding their face.
There is a series of dress items Muslim women are compelled to wear, like niqaab, abaya, chador, sheila, purda and muslimah, with several variations in covering the body, including the face. These are the most mandatory when Muslim women are in the presence of males outside of their immediate family, as per the Islamic standards of modesty. This is in vogue among Muslims in all the countries of the world, in more or less degrees, even though a small percentage of them have freed themselves from some of them, a good number of people even from all of them. The above decision is grounded in the open perspective that such a practice is un-Islamic and has several unsocial implications.
It is greatly heartening to note that the decision of the above organization has initiated a debate with regard to what a modest dress code for Muslim women is, along with the logic of dress code being imposed by religious guardians, who are for the most part men and men only. Shivsena in the editorial of its publication Saamana’ called for the ‘ban of burqa’, as well. Well-known poet, lyricist and screen writer Janab Javed Akhtar has opened the debate to the Hindu community, stating that the ban has to be applied to ‘ghoonghat’ worn by some women of the Hindu community. Further, the debate paves the way for eliminating artificial and objectionable dress codes of women and men alike, in whichever community they are found, in view of evolving simple, good-looking and elegant dress habits in the entire country or society.
Manifestly, dressing is part of the human culture and different civilizations and countries have devised different dress patterns for women and men. It is also true that the idea of modest dressing differs, to some extent, from country to country, community to community and individual to individual. It cannot in any way be denied that lots of unnatural, artificial and comic dress styles have became prevalent in different communities, especially for women and for religious heads. Developed countries and communities, especially in recent times, have revised the concept of modesty and simplified the dress code of women, and that of religious heads. The 21st century seriously calls for doing away with abnormal and comic dress styles, both of women and men, and for simplifying and secularizing them towards more decent ones.
At the end of the day, the logic of dressing, definitely, is not for hiding the parts of the body, which is the gift of the Creator, but towards covering them. The modes of covering them have to be, without doubt, artistic, civilized and dignified as well as modest, convenient and simple. However, covering the face cannot be justified on any ground, because face is the most dignified part of any being, especially of the humans. Face is the mark of identification and the focus of interaction and relationship, too. Covering the face is a grave insult to the person, to oneself and to the other. Therefore, it has to be stated that dress code that make people look like a bundle, all the more so when the face is covered, is out and out de-humanizing, un-dignifying and is not acceptable to the social culture of the humans. The new narrative that is emerging has very large and important implications for all individuals and communities concerned, though in more or less proportions.
The first villain in the matter in question, I suppose, is ‘men’ of the respective communities who have conceived funny dress patterns for their women and compelled or condemned them to wear it for good. It is unfortunate that a considerable number of such enslaved women have got habituated to such patterns of dress that they have become incapable of thinking otherwise. At any rate, supposing that the concern of men behind such dress code of women is sex-related and that some men are so vulnerable that they slip off in the presence of women in normal dress, it is those men who require pathological assistance. Punishing women with awkward dress habits, even to the point of depriving them of sunlight-drawn Vitamin D on the face, does not stand to any logic. Women have the fundamental right to choose dress styles that befit them. It is high time re-visioning such criminal way of preserving patriarchic supremacy, irrespective of communities where such instances are found.
The second villainous element in the society is ‘religion’. In fact, religion and dress have no necessary connection between them. If religion argues for a symbolic identity in dressing, that could be considered. But, all religions, some religions in special, have overplayed with regard to devising and imposing perverted dress designs on women as well as on religious heads, with an intention to keep them under the grip. Conservative communities that still resort to circus-like and amusing dress habits and lag behind in the human culture ought to learn from progressive communities, especially of the developed countries, in favour of updating their dress patterns. Dress habits are basically part of the social culture of the humans and so, the aggressive and ugly grip of religion and religions on dress patterns, especially of women, have to be resisted, whatever be the pretexts.
The debate initiated by MES is worthy of being
complimented and continued, incredibly so, in view of re-visioning a culture of
a more dignified, aesthetic and nobler dress code for women, men as well, of
all communities in the 21st century and beyond. The path of
education, scientific temper, enlightenment, good sense and dignity, when
walked, better cultural prospects for the humans are sure to evolve in the
future.
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The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past over 40 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.
He could be viewed,
listened to and contacted at the following portals – websites ‘www.mdthomas.in’
(p), ‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’(p) and ‘www.ihpsindia.org’
(o);
social media ‘https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’ (o),
‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’ (p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’
(p); email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’
(p) and telephone 9810535378 (p).
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