by BINA SHAH
(Pakistan’s ranking as fourth in the global intelligence survey can’t be correct because you can’t find it anywhere except on sites run by Pakistanis. Ed.)
Frankly, what I find offensive is the idea that women in niqab or abayas need to be “humanised” in the first place. PHOTO/Screenshot
I have been asked to comment on this picture by the blog editor of The Express Tribune, probably because the last time I blogged about the niqab, I took a controversial stance that earned me hundreds of comments, at least a thousand “likes” and retweets on Facebook and Twitter, and the ire of several dozen internet trolls who branded me as the blogger who “supports nudity”.
Rather than provoke an equal amount of ire this time, I decided to do things a little differently: I posted the picture on my Twitter account and asked people what they thought about it.
Given the fact that Pakistan has been recently ranked fourth in the world in a global intelligence survey, I thought I’d be on the receiving end of some very intelligent commentary on this provocative image. I should have known better. Here’s a sampling of the comments I received:
“Wrong size”
“Forget what we think. What do you think? Is she going to put bombs in it?”
“Niqabis need support too”
The only matter of fact comment came written in Urdu:
“Zaroorat hai, is mein sochne wali kya baat hai?”
(It’s a necessity; what’s there to think about?)
That was my first thought, too, even though I knew the context of the photo: a Canadian photography student, Sooraya Graham, took a picture of a friend in a niqab doing her laundry and holding up the piece of lingerie.
She showed the picture in a photography exhibition at her university, with no context explaining the photograph, but said that her intention was to “humanise women who wear niqabs” (Graham wears one too).
Then the controversy began: a visiting international faculty member, a Muslim woman who said she was acting on behalf of other Muslim students, tore the photograph down and held it hostage in her office, refusing to give it back until Graham promised not to put it up again.
The Express Tribune for more