- Wednesday, April 24, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
PROMINENT Indian Muslim parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday (9) slammed Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi after the latter tried to school India over girls’ education in the context of the ongoing hijab row in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
Addressing a rally in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh which goes to a seven-phase election starting Thursday (10), Owaisi, who is the president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) political party based in Hyderabad, asked the neighbouring country to mind its own business. He also said that a country which could not protect Malala Yousafzai should not lecture India on girl education.
ALSO READ: Karnataka hijab row: Court sends case to chief justice’s bench
“Pakistan should not lecture India on girl education. Malala was shot there. They failed to provide security to their girls and are now lecturing India,” the parliamentarian, who was recently targeted in Uttar Pradesh, said.
Malala Yousafzai, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning girls’ rights activist from Pakistan, was 15 when she survived a life-threatening attack by the Taliban in Pakistan for speaking up for the girls’ education. She currently resides in the UK and recently got married.
Owaisi’s remarks came after Qureshi said on Twitter that India was “violating Muslim girls’ human rights by depriving them of education”.
“Depriving Muslim girls of an education is a grave violation of fundamental human rights. To deny anyone this fundamental right & terrorise them for wearing a hijab is absolutely oppressive,” he said.
“World must realise this is part of Indian state plan of ghettoisation of Muslims,” he added.
Depriving Muslim girls of an education is a grave violation of fundamental human rights. To deny anyone this fundamental right & terrorise them for wearing a hijab is absolutely oppressive. World must realise this is part of Indian state plan of ghettoisation of Muslims.
— Shah Mahmood Qureshi (@SMQureshiPTI) February 9, 2022
The Pakistani minister made the remark over the ongoing row in Karnataka over some educational institutions not allowing Muslim girls inside classrooms wearing a hijab, a religious headscarf. The matter has entered the ambit of the judiciary as it has snowballed into a crisis with spill-over effects in other states of the country.
In response to Qureshi, Owaisi said the hijab row was India’s internal matter in which others should not interfere.
@asadowaisi lambasts #Pakistan Imran Khan govt's attempt to lecture India on #Hijabrow#owaisi की पाकिस्तान को दो टूक – ‘’हमारा घर का मसला -टांग मत अड़ाओ, ज़ख़्मी हो जाओगे ‘’ #HijabisOurRight #KarnatakaHijabRow pic.twitter.com/lAKISums5N
— Aashish (@Ashi_IndiaToday) February 9, 2022
“People of Pakistan should worry about their internal conflicts, no need to interfere in our issues,” he said.
However, Qureshi was not the only Pakistani leader to have criticised India over the hijab controversy.
Information and broadcasting minister Fawad Hussain said what is going on in India is terrifying.
“What’s going on in #ModiEndia is terrifying, Indian Society is declining with super speed under unstable leadership. Wearing #Hujab is a personal choice just as any other dress citizens must be given free choice,” he tweeted.
What’s going on in #ModiEndia is terrifying, Indian Society is declining with super speed under unstable leadership. Wearing #Hujab is a personal choice just as any other dress citizens must be given free choice #AllahHuAkbar
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) February 8, 2022
Indian minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, one of the Muslim faces of prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, reacted to the Pakistani ministers’ tweets saying some people are giving “communal colour” to a decision on dress code and discipline of institutions as part of their “conspiracy to defame India’s inclusive culture”.
He said Pakistan is a “jungle of crime and cruelty” for minorities but yet preaching India on tolerance and secularism.
The reality is that the socio-educational-religious rights of minorities are being trampled brazenly in Pakistan, the minister told reporters in New Delhi.
Owaisi also said in a tweet earlier that he had a word with Muskan, the girl who was heckled by a mob on Tuesday (8) for wearing a burqa to college in Karnataka, and her family.
“Prayed for her to remain steadfast in her commitment to education while also exercising her freedom of religion & choice. I conveyed that her act of fearlessness has become a source of courage for us all,” he said.
Malala also slammed the row in India saying it was “horrifying” and called on the Indian leadership to “stop the marginalisation of Muslim women”.
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, Malala wrote that objectification of women persisted, for wearing less or more.
“Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying. Objectification of women persists, for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women,” she said.
“College is forcing us to choose between studies and the hijab”.
Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying. Objectification of women persists — for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women. https://t.co/UGfuLWAR8I
— Malala (@Malala) February 8, 2022
