Umran Hussain
Soon after the Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education declared the much awaited class 12th results, Congratulatory messages started pouring in for a 12th class student Arusa Pervaiz who topped the board results in science stream.
Things soon turned ugly when Arusa appeared on various web portals sharing her journey, thanking her teachers’ efforts and support of her family. The local populace noticed that Arusa was not covering her head with a scarf or a hijab.
Her video stories took over the internet, but for a different reason now. A small section of people posted simple congratulatory messages for her but a huge number of social media users started calling her out for appearing ‘Hijab-less’ in the videos.
It is a well established fact in Islam that Hijab is a test for the Muslim woman. It is clear from the Qur’an and the Hadiths that hijab is a religious obligation, which a woman has to undertake, but at the same time The Holy Quran says, “So by mercy from Allah, [O Muhammad], you were lenient with them. And if you had been rude [in speech] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from about you. So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter. And when you have decided, then rely upon Allah . Indeed, Allah loves those who rely [upon Him].” – The Holy Quran 3:159.
Such is the beauty of our religion. There are hundreds of Quranic verses and Ahadith (Sayings of last Messenger(PBUH) of Islam) which teach us to be polite to others.
Another beautiful Quranic verse says, “O you who have believed, let not a people ridicule [another] people; perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women ridicule [other] women; perhaps they may be better than them. And do not insult one another and do not call each other by [offensive] nicknames. Wretched is the name of disobedience after [one’s] faith. And whoever does not repent – then it is those who are the wrongdoers.” – The Holy Quran 49:11.
People who ridiculed Arusa are the ones who are specific in targetting a particular section of Muslims and they are habitual of being choosy, they profess what suits their instinct.
Coming to the ‘specificity’ of targeting a particular gender, a very recent example caught our attention where a Muslim man was seen dancing with semi nude women. He too was ridiculed and called out for obvious reasons but suprisingly, some learned scholars justified his actions by saying that, “we should not be judgemental, what if this man has some mental problems.” A humorous justification though, but people spared some time to come to his rescue. Is it just because he was a man.? Let’s ask this question to ourselves.
Arusa is a school going kid, a 12th class student. She didn’t deserve the wrath that was unleashed upon her, she deserved appreciation added with a polite advise about the importance of Hijab.
Not only Arusa, her parents and relatives too had to face the outrage for being responsible for her upbringing.
Arusa’s video was watched by millions of people across all social media platforms with 1.4 millions views on a prominent web portal alone.
Thousands of comments, thousands of shares and a long lasting impact on Arusa’s mind. Remember, Arusa is just a school going child. The fertile minds of school kids tend to be very very receptive to activities taking place in their society.
What if Arusa develops hate for the people who trolled and abused her for being hijab less.?
What if the impact of this harsh cyber bullying impacts her psychological well being.? It should be our moral obligation to think before we target a person on social media.
