If you look visibly like a Muslim, is that reason enough for you to be marginalised? | The Indian Express

If you look visibly like a Muslim, is that reason enough for you to be marginalised? | The Indian Express

Written by Zehra Naqvi |Updated: May 20, 2019 10:16:38 am

The writer is a freelance journalist

If you look visibly like a Muslim, is that reason enough for you to be marginalised?

The fact is that the young Muslim woman of today has chosen to go ahead and own the hijab. She has personalised it and decided to carve her path following her own rules.

India, too, has witnessed a steady growth of hijabi professionals. Ramnath Goenka Award-winning journalist Ashwaq Masoodi is an unapologetic hijabi, as is Falak Naaz Syed, a financial journalist from Mumbai. (Image for representational image)

“Hijab” is one of the most emotionally charged and politically flammable words of our times. And it doesn’t help that the word rhymes with — of all things — jihad. Being a hijab-clad woman who chooses to assert herself within the mainstream is like being a walking target for “counter-terror operations” in the form of allegations and assumptions fired in your direction with great speed and precision.