'Resent This System Where Women Are Harassed For...': Zaira Wasim on Hijab Row

Zaira Wasim shared a lengthy post on social media criticising the hijab ban in Karnataka schools.

Former actor Zaira Wasim speaks about the hijab row. 

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

Zaira Wasim took to social media on Saturday to express her opinions about the hijab row in Karnataka. She shared a lengthy post criticising the hijab ban in Karnataka schools, adding that she "resents a system where women are harassed for merely carrying out a religious commitment".

Zaira began by writing that in Islam, wearing a hijab "isn't a choice but an obligation". "Likewise, a woman who wears the hijab is fulfilling an obligation enjoined upon her by the God she loves and has submitted herself to. I, as a woman who wears the hijab with gratitude and humility, resent and resist the entire system where women are being stopped and harassed for merely carrying out a religious commitment".

She added that those systems that force women to choose between hijab and education are unjust ones. “Stacking this bias against Muslim women and setting up systems where they should have to decide between education and hijab or to give up either is an absolute injustice. You’re attempting to compel them to make a very specific choice that feeds your agenda and then criticising them while they’re imprisoned in what you’ve constructed.”

Zaira further wrote that all this was taking place under the facade of empowerment. “On top of all this, building a façade that all this is being done in the name of empowerment is even worse when it is quite exactly the opposite of that. Sad.”

After acting in films such as Dangal, Secret Superstar and The Sky is Pink, Zaira had announced that she would quit acting as it was at odds with her faith.