Published on: 2015-06-29
Written By: Irena Akbar
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/blogs/the-dress-code-debate-a-book-in-hand-or-size-of-top/
The
bigger question is whether there should be any uniform or dress code at all.
Should there be any restrictions whatsoever on what one should wear or not to
college?
A Kerala women’s college, run by a Muslim
educational trust, has run into online ire for its imposition of a dress code
on its students — no tight jeans, short tops or leggings. Only salwar or churidar,
and if Muslim students want, a headscarf, but no full-face veil. Also, all
students should throw away the shawl and wear an overcoat.
Well, an overcoat replacing a shawl, or
even a dupatta, is not a bad idea considering how irritating it
gets to keep flinging back a dupatta or shawl whenever it
falls off. An overcoat is certainly more manageable.
But that’s only the detail. The bigger
question is whether there should be any uniform or dress code at all. Should
there be any restrictions whatsoever on what one should wear or not to college?
Silly question, isn’t it? Of course, there
shouldn’t. Women and girls should be allowed to wear what they want, and if you
can’t handle their sartorial choices, well that’s your problem. So, you fix
your gaze, instead of asking the girls to fix their wardrobe.
Alas, it’s not that simple. There is a
middle path between the two polar positions — one where you can wear what you
want with no questions asked, and one where you can’t wear what you want.
To explain, I’ll go back to 2010, and shift
the lens from Kerala, much further north to Haryana. That year, I was in Mewat,
a Muslim-dominated, largely rural district in Haryana, for a story. Mewat has
one of the worst literacy rates in the country, and is very conservative by
even so-called “moderate” Muslim standards. And I was sent to cover a quiet but
a significant change happening in Mewat. The many madarsas of Mewat were
modernizing. In their own way. Without the help — some call it interference —
of the government.
These madarsas were
teaching English, Maths and Science, alongside Islamic studies. And surprise,
surprise — these madarsas were co-educational! Girls and boys
were studying in the same class, but were segregated in the classrooms and the
girls were wearing a hijab. Villagers were setting up their own
schools (not madarsas) teaching modern education, but here too, the
boys and girls were segregated and the girls were in hijab.
I can already feel eyebrows raised at the
segregation and the hijab bit. But wait. Try to understand the context. I spoke
to liberal academicians and researchers who’ve done a lot of work in Mewat. They
lauded these madarsas and schools, and actually credited the segregation and
hijab aspects for the educational revolution happening in the district. For,
were it not for these conditions, the parents would have never sent their girls
to school. The madarsas and the modern schools were being considerate and
mindful of the sensibilities and the ethos of conservative Muslim families.
Between the need for education, and the freedom to wear what you want, they
chose the former and succeeded. If education is being held hostage by sartorial
compulsions, then maybe education can sort of allow those sartorial
compulsions, in order to be successful in its ultimate goal of producing
informed citizens. Once the students become informed citizens, they will be
able to exercise their freedom to wear what they want.
Coming back to the Kerala women’s college,
according to news reports, 50 per cent of the students and 40 per cent of the
parents are happy with the school’s rules. I have my doubts about this survey,
unless an independent agency does the same survey and comes up with similar
results.
But if the college is truthful about the
results, well then 50 per cent and 40 per cent are indeed big numbers. And in
the interest of education, maybe we can go soft in our angst over the new dress
codes. If the new dress codes are followed by an increase in the number of
applications for admissions to the college, a decrease in the drop-out rates of
students, and an increase in the diversity of students in the college (more poor
families sending their girls to college, and more students of different
communities), then maybe we should not get so angry about the dress
restrictions.
But if the new rules have no effect
whatsoever, and have been put in place because the management deems them right,
then we can certainly question their intent.
I’ll go back in time again. In 2004, a
Hindu acquaintance of mine from a small village in eastern UP had secured
admission to both Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia. But she took
admission in the latter. I asked her why not DU. And she told me her parents
put her in Jamia, because they thought she would “suffer less of a culture
shock” in Jamia than in DU. She told me that they thought DU’s environment was
more “advanced” than Jamia and that she would feel more comfortable at the
latter. In other words, the girls in DU were too Westernised for her to deal
with. Jamia would be more at home.
That acquaintance of mine would mostly
wear salwar kameez or a pair of loose-fit jeans and a long top
on the Jamia campus. But she was happy. A book and pen in hand for her was more
important than the size of a top or the fit of a pair of jeans.